National Irish Bank, a unit of Denmark's Danske Bank Group, today posted pre-tax losses of €496m for the nine months to the end of September, having added €544m for bad debts.

The loan impairment provisions mainly relate to commercial property and the bank has about 4% of the Irish residential mortgage market.

NIB reported a 6% rise in operating profit to €48m for the nine month period, while income fell 4% to €139m.

Costs dropped 8% to €91m.

Danske Bank Group reported operating profit was up 97% to €3.2 billion and income increased 48% to €6.2 billion.

It set aside €2.8 billion for loan impairment charges -  - the Irish unit being responsible for about a fifth of the total.

Core (Tier 1) capital and solvency ratios were 12.6% (10.0% in Q3 2008) and 16.3% (13.9% in Q3 2008).


Commenting on the results, Andrew Healy, CEO of National Irish Bank and member of Danske Bank Group’s executive committee said: "National Irish Bank’s results are in line with expectations against the background of extremely difficult economic and market conditions. Reflecting strong cost management, operating profit increased 6%, but loan impairments continue at high levels.

There are signs of economic recovery internationally but Ireland is still in deep recession and has some way to go before turning the corner. Our priorities in this environment are to continue to work closely with our customers through the challenges they face and to manage our costs. We are fortunate to be part of Danske Bank, a strong, well capitalised European banking group who are committed to Ireland."