BANK OF IRELAND, the nation’s largest bank, is preparing to sell its remaining $1.8 billion (€1.3bn) of US real-estate loans after regulators ordered it to shrink its balance sheet.

SPANISH bank Banco Santander – Europe’s biggest – is the front runner to buy AIB’s stake in Polish bank Zachodni WBK, in a head-to-head bidding war Poland’s biggest bank PKO BP which could garner €2.5 billion for the troubled Irish bank.