Danske Bank raised its full-year profit forecast yesterday, after its earnings beat expectations and said it would run its Northern Ireland arm as a standalone business, fuelling speculation of a sale.

Danske Bank Ireland made a pre-tax loss of €17.4m for the second quarter of the year, which compares with a loss of €8.8m for the first three months of 2013 and a loss of €15m for the second quarter of 2012.

Danske Bank has expressed confidence in its ability to grow its re-branded offering in Ireland, after seeing its operations here cut first-quarter losses by 41% and impairment charges by 65%.

Danske Bank Ireland has set aside €750m as a provision for bad loans, a decrease of 12% on the amount that the bank had set aside last year.