Bank Of Ireland Reports First Half Profit

Bank of ireland reports first half profit

The Finance Minister says Bank of Ireland's return to profitability for the first time in five years is proof the "recovery is taking hold". Michael Noonan's comments come after BOI announced a half-year underlying profit of 327 million euro. The bank says its improved figures are being driven in part by a drop in the level of write-downs on bad debt. Chief Executive Richie Boucher says the bank's mortgage book is also steadily improving. "The negative equity has come down from 3 billion to 2.6 billion - of which about 700 million is in the defaulted book" he said. We have quite prudent coverage ratios there". "That's obviously having some benefit - so the mortgages we've provided in the first half of this year is up about 40 percent on the first half of last year" he added.