Anglo €17.7bn loss largest in corporate history

ANGLO IRISH BANK has reported a loss of €17.7 billion for 2010, the largest annual loss in Irish corporate history — and also more than was forecast in early February.

However, the bank’s management has said that it is unlikely that any more taxpayers’ money will have to be pumped into the failed institution.

The latest figures from the disgraced nationalised lender included impairment charges of €7.8bn (including charges of €2.6bn directly relating to NAMA-transferred loans) and a loss of €11.5bn on the disposal of assets to NAMA.

Anglo is now in wind-down mode — its deposit book was transferred to AIB at the end of February on the same day as Irish Nationwide’s deposits were moved to Irish Life & Permanent. But it technically remains unclear as to how much more capital it will need, if any, on top of the €29.3bn in recapitalisation costs it has already clocked up.

This depends on the size of Anglo’s future loan losses, however Anglo chief executive Mike Aynsley said management is confident no further taxpayer funds would be needed to support the bank.

Mr Aynsley said that last year should have seen the worst of the bank’s losses and that, in terms of funding, the institution is still looking at the low end of last year’s stress test/recapitalisation scenario.

“We don’t expect that the taxpayer is going to need to put any more funds into the bank. There are things, of course, that impact on that which are outside of our control — such as the linkage between the loans that we have and the asset values in the marketplace, so that if the property market continued to fall then that would have an impact on the future valuation of the loans,” he said.

The bank said, yesterday, that after the completion of loans to NAMA — another €1.1bn worth of loans are set to move — it will be left with a loan book of just under €36bn.

“The final loss on transfer of assets to NAMA will only be determined following the completion of NAMA’s due diligence in respect of all assets transferred,” Anglo said.

Yesterday’s figures also showed that Anglo’s total asset value fell last year by €13bn — from €85.2bn to €72.2bn.