BoI chief refuses to rule out cash injection

The Chief Executive of Bank of Ireland Richie Boucher has said he thinks the timetable the bank's been given to raise funds on its own is "manageable".

However, Mr Boucher has refused to rule out needing a further cash injection from the taxpayer.

The Government has set June as the deadline for Bank of Ireland to raise billions of euro, to avoid having to take a bigger stake in the institution which today reported more than €3.4bn in pre-tax losses for last year.

In a statement to the Irish stock exchange, the bank said it lost more than €2.2bn in the sale of its property and land development loans to NAMA in 2010.

Mr Boucher said: "The bank has a lot going for it which could make it attractive to investors."

He also said, despite the challenging circumstances, 95% of its mortgage holders are meeting repayments.

He moved to reassure tax-payers that Bank of Ireland is a "good bank".