Bank of Ireland shares fall on UK mortgage competition

Competition among its substantial mortgage operations in the UK weighed on Bank of Ireland, as the lender faced an early stage hurdle to a multi-year strategy to boost loan growth and reduce costs amid Brexit uncertainty.

Its shares fell as much as 5% at one stage after the bank reported its net interest margin — a key measure of profitability — would fall further this year. Underlying profit fell to €935m in 2018 from almost €1.07bn in the previous year.