Anglo Irish Bank proves resilient

Anglo Irish Bank (AIB) shrugged off the impact of the foot-and-mouth disease and the US slowdown to report a strong first-half performance, it said today.

Pre-tax profits at the Dublin-based group soared by 48% to €90.5m (£66m) over the six months to 31 March.

AIB group chief executive Sean FitzPatrick attributed much of the banks’ growth to its lending and treasury businesses.

Customer deposits grew by 26% to €8bn (£4.97bn) while lending rose 21% to €10bn (£6.2bn) compared to the previous half.

Total income also rose, by 41% over the six months to €176.7m (£109.6m), although compared to the same period last year, total income fell by €96.7m (£69.9m).

The bank has been expanding during the last six months - last December it acquired private bank Banque Marcuard Cook & Co and earlier this year launched the Anglo Irish Assurance Company.

But the expense of the purchase of Banque Marcuard has been cancelled out by a 42 million euros share placing earlier this year

Group finance director William McAteer said he expected external economic influences to continue affecting the bank for the foreseeable future.

But he added he had confidence in the Irish economy, claiming ‘‘the fundamentals are very strong’’ despite the impact of foot-and-mouth on the Irish farming community.