Bank of Ireland has reported a rise in its profits
Bank of Ireland's interim results for 2015 show that the bank recorded an underlying profit of €1.2bn, an increase of 30% over the previous year.
The bank remains Ireland's largest lender, providing €6.9bn of new credit to personal and business customers in 2015.
It now aims to recommence dividend repayments during the first half of 2017.
The bank's CEO, Richie Boucher, said: "All of our trading divisions are profitable and contributed to our strong financial performance during the period. We continued to be the largest lender to the Irish economy, providing €6.9 billion of new credit to personal and business customers in 2015.
"With our strong franchises, we are well positioned to meet credit demand which is recovering as the Irish economy grows and confidence returns. We generated an underlying profit before tax of €1,201 million in 2015, 30% higher than the equivalent figure in 2014 of €921 million.
"The Group continues to generate capital at a significant pace, with a 200 basis points increase to 11.3% in our fully loaded Common equity tier 1 ratio during 2015. We have maintained our progress towards dividends and have updated our distribution policy."
Mr Boucher said the bank's momentum means they have a confident outlook for their prospects.
* Underlying profit of €1.2bn, 30% increase over 2014; all trading divisions profitable
* Continued to be largest lender to the Irish economy in 2015
* Group new lending up 40% on 2014 to €14.2bn
* Group loans grew in 2015; net new lending of €3.9bn in core loan books
* Reduced non-performing loans by a further €3.8bn in 2015
* Increased TNAV per share by c.12% to 24.1c
* Increased fully loaded CET1 ratio by 200bps to 11.3%; 500bps increase over past 2 years
* Redeemed 2009 Preference Shares at the earliest possible opportunity
* Restored to Investment Grade by Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch
* Maintaining progress towards dividend capacity – updated distribution policy in place
