BKIR.L Regulatory News (BKIR)

28 Mar 2007 07:01

Bank of Ireland(Governor&Co)28 March 2007 ICS BUILDING SOCIETY SUMMARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2006 ICS BUILDING SOCIETY REPORTS A PRE-TAX PROFIT INCREASE OF 14% ICS Building Society, a subsidiary of the Bank of Ireland Group, today(Wednesday, 28th March 2007) announced an increase in pre-tax profits of 13.6%to €128.8 million for the year ended 31st December 2006. Financial Highlights 2006 2006 2005 % change •m •mSurplus Before Tax 128.8 113.4 +13.6% Surplus After Tax 112.7 99.6 +13.1%Net Interest Income 90.4 82.7 +9.3%Fees and Commissions Receivable 79.2 66.3 +19.4%Fees and Commissions Payable 9.0 6.4 +40.6%Operating Expenses 26.8 24.8 +8.0%Cost Income Ratio 19.1% 20.3% -1.2% •bn •bn New Advances - ICS 2.0 1.7 +14% New Advances - ROI (Bank and ICS)** 7.5 6.3 +19%Mortgage Balances - ICS 6.2 5.2 +20%Mortgage Balances - ROI (Bank and ICS)** 24.4 19.3 +16%Deposits 3.8 3.3 +18%Total Assets - ICS 8.4 7.2 +17% ** ICS processes mortgages on behalf of Bank of Ireland ROI. ICS Building Society's Managing Director, Mr. Joe Larkin, said: "I am pleased to report another strong performance for the Society. Theperformance was achieved against a backdrop of increased competitive activityand I believe that our success has been driven by our ability to deliverconsistently high levels of customer service together with competitive,innovative products that meet the needs of each market segment that we serve.The Society achieved a market share of 4.9% in 2006, with a particularly stronglast quarter, winning 5.2% of new mortgage lending. The Society's new mortgagelending increased by 14% from €1,722m in 2005 to €1,963m in 2006. When combinedwith our owner Bank of Ireland we continue to have the largest share of mortgagelending in Ireland. "The housing market in 2006 was underpinned by strong economic drivers, withstrong population growth and employment levels driving demand. The value of newmortgage lending grew to €40bn in 2006*, up 17% on 2005. Towards the end of theyear we saw growth levels slowing down as increasing ECB rates impacted marketactivity" * Irish Mortgage Council Q4 Market Data The principal features of the 2006 results for ICS are: • New mortgage advances up 14.0% to €2.0bn • Mortgage book up 19.7% to €6.2bn • Deposit book up 17.8% to €3.8bn • Fees and commission receivable up 19.4% to €79m (This represents the growth in fee income from processing and servicing recordvolumes of mortgages on behalf of Bank of Ireland) • Liquidity ratio 26.97% • Cost : income ratio decreased by 1.2% from 20.3% in 2005 to 19.1% in 2006 Referring to the strong ICS Building Society's results, Joe Larkin said: "2006was a very strong year for ICS and this is reflected not just in the growth weachieved but also in the quality of the business. In 2006, we helped a recordnumber of people own their own homes or to purchase an investment property. Iwould like to thank our customers and our staff for another successful year forICS." Ends 28th March 2007 For further information: Mary BrennanGroup Corporate CommunicationsBank of IrelandTel: 01 6043838 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange