Plan to create third sustainable bank

The Government is planning to create a third performing Irish bank by moving €12.5bn of Permanent TSB’s loans into a bad bank.

Finance Minister Micheal Noonan said a plan to re-structure Permanent TSB, the banking arm of Irish Life and Permanent, would create a third, sustainable Irish bank. He said the bank had a large branch network and 1,800 employees in Ireland, so he could not see any reason why a sustainable retail bank could not emerge.

“Agreement has been reached, in line with the programme commitments, on the strategic direction for Permanent TSB, with a formal restructuring plan to be submitted to the European Commission by the end of June. The objective of this plan is to create a viable retail bank focused on lending into the Irish economy. This will be achieved by carving out a viable bank from the current Permanent TSB business,” he said.