Bank of Ireland announces pre-tax profit of €1,013m

Bank of Ireland issued strong full year results today, with profit before tax coming in at €1,013m for the year to the end of March.

This figure is ahead of broker expectations and is marginally down on last year, dropping from €1,085m.

Pre-tax profits before exceptional items were up 5%.

These exceptional items of €164m were linked to the restructure of its UK operations.

Earnings at its retail operations in Ireland rose by 17% but the value of assets at Bank of Ireland Asset Management fell by €14.4bn. Its life assurance arm wrote down €49m.

Bank of Ireland chief executive Mike Soden said: "This was a satisfactory performance in absolute terms and relative to our peers. We have combined business growth with efficient capital management to provide a high level of ROE and strong EPS growth."

New volumes in the bank's mortgage business were up 49% and the domestic retail business at the bank showed profit growth of 17% in the period.

In an interview this morning, Mr Soden said he thought the Irish housing market was moving towards a balance between supply and demand, and that he thought housing was still affordable.