Today – after a few months of waiting and wondering – the minister for Finance announced details of the first wave of bad debts to be transfered from the Irish banks to NAMA (National Asset Management Agency)
Just over 1,200 individual loans are involved with a total “book” or nominal value of €16 billion. They are being purchased for €8.5 billion, an average discount of 47 per cent.
It transferred the initial loans from Irish Nationwide Building Society and EBS Building Society yesterday and the first batch of loans from Bank of Ireland will be transferred on Friday, April 2nd. The first set of loans from AIB and Anglo Irish Bank are expected to be completed in early April.
Nama will pay AIB €1.88 billion for loans worth €3.29 billion, a discount of 43 per cent. It will pay €5 billion for €10 billion of Anglo Irish loans and Bank of Ireland will get €1.26 billion for loans worth €1.93 billion.
The transfer of the remaining “bad” loans from all five institutions is expected to be completed by the end of 2010 – and no later than end February 2011, a deadline set by the European Commission. The total value of loans that Nama expects to purchase is €81 billion.