Bank of Scotland (Ireland) declare €118m profits
Bank of Scotland (Ireland) today announced pre-tax profits for the first six months of the year of €118m.
This was 14% up on the same period last year.
The company whose retail banking arm is known as Halifax also said that advances to customers increased to €26.3bn, up 23%.
Other highlights were:
Business banking at €18.7bn, up 23%.
Retail banking at €7.6bn up 22%.
Customer deposits at €9.0bn up 10%.
Net interest income at €224m up 23%.
All the figures are on an annualised prediction.
Bank chief executive Mark Duffy said the introduction by the Halifax of current account facilities at 32 branches nationwide meant they were now a full-service bank competing head-on with the ‘big two’ banks.
Their retail banking service was attracting consumers who, he claimed, had been taken for granted by their existing banks.
In addition, their business banking sector had gone from strength to strength.
The underlying economic conditions in this country continued to be positive with projections showing strong growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP for the remainder of 2007 and 2008, low unemployment and stability in consumer confidence.
However, there was a word of caution. There would continue to be, he said, be "some softening in the housing market".
House price growth had slowed over the period as a result of uncertainties in stamp duty reform and continuing interest rate increases
This slowdown in growth to "more sustainable levels" was welcome. There were signs of renewed activity in the mortgage market now that the stamp duty issue had been resolved.
They believed this would build through the second half of the year.
Prospects for our core business banking businesses were good, with benign market conditions and a healthy pipeline.
In their retail and intermediary division, the sales pipeline was strong and trending upwards as they increased their nationwide presence.
They expected, in the mortgage market particularly, to increase their market share for the second year in a row as they continued to grow both their intermediary brand (Bank of Scotland Ireland) and their retail brand (Halifax).
