LONDON (Alliance News) - Bank of Ireland on Monday said it plans to pay its first dividend since 2008, as the lender reported a 30% increase in annual underlying profit.
Underlying profit rose to EUR1.20 billion in 2015, from EUR921.0 million the prior year, paving the way for Ireland's biggest lender to pay a dividend for 2016, with an initial payment to be made in the first half of 2017.
The bank said to expect dividend payments to re-commence at a modest level. The payments will be built over time, towards a payout ratio of around 50% of sustainable earnings. Its fully loaded common equity tier one ratio, a key measure of financial strength for banks, improved by 200 basis points to 11.3%, a sign of progress towards being able to pay dividends.
New lending grew by more than 40% to EUR14.2 billion, the bank said, with net new lending of EUR3.9 billion in core loan books. Non-performing loans were reduced by EUR3.8 billion over the course of the year, to EUR12.0 billion.
"All of our trading divisions are profitable and contributed to our strong financial performance during the period," Chief Executive Richie Boucher said. "With our strong franchises, we are well positioned to meet credit demand which is recovering as the Irish economy grows and confidence returns," he added.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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