IL&P report losses of €197m

Irish Life & Permanent has reported a loss of €197m for last year as a strong performance at its life business was offset by further losses at its banking business Permanent TSB, where the number of mortgages in arrears increased by almost 50%.

Irish Life and Permanent has reported a loss of €197m for last year.

Its life insurance division made a profit of about €50m, but losses at its banking division, Permanent TSB came in at €364m.

The bank has seen an increase of 50% in the number of mortgage customers in arrears.

Kevin Murphy, Group Chief Executive said: "We had further losses in the banking business where the cost of rising impairment provisions drove a loss of €364m."

€242m of the loan loss provision was linked to residential mortgages.

Permanent TSB's loan to deposit ratio was 249% at the end of 2010, but the recent addition of deposits from Irish Nationwide would have reduced this to 200%.

Profits in IL&P's life business jumped, however, by 57% to €160m. This was due to strong growth in the value of existing business as more people held on to policies. Sales in the life business were up 6% to €572m. Retail sales fell 8% but there was strong growth at Irish Life Investment Managers.

Mr Murphy said: "Combine this with the losses and with some movements in other areas and we had an operating loss for the Group of some €197m which was very close to the performance in 2009.”