Monday, November 4, 2024

Bank of Ireland will next week pay out its first dividend since the financial crash

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The bank has maintained guidance for its full year results in an update to the market, despite faster than expected cuts in official interest rates.

Bank of Ireland will pay out a dividend of 35c per share to shareholders on November 7.

The pay out is in addition to a recently completed €520m share buyback programme.

Myles O’Grady, Bank of Ireland Group chief executive, said the successful execution of the bank’s strategy was delivering very strong levels of business performance, profitability and capital generation.

“The loan book increased by 4pc while wealth assets under management grew by 15pc. We continue to invest for our customers, including simpler ways of banking and enhanced fraud prevention and detection,” he said.

Net lending for the third quarter of 2024 was €2.8bn up on the end of last year

“The group’s high level of organic capital generation supports loan-book growth and technology investment, including resilience – and as we approach the end of the second year of our three-year strategic cycle, our highly capital generative and differentiated business model, operating in structurally attractive and growing markets, positions us well to continue to support our customers, to invest in our business and to deliver attractive returns for our shareholders,” he said.

In a trading update, the bank said net lending for the third quarter of 2024 was €2.8bn up on the end of last year, largely through Irish lending.

Customer deposits were €100.7bn at the end of September, fairly flat on the mid-year level. But in its wealth and insurance business, assets under management increased €6.7bn to €52.8bn in the year to date.

The bank said favourable domestic economic conditions and outlook are supportive of its Irish franchises, citing numbers of people at work, the expansionary budget, cooling of inflation and trends in the Irish housing market.

The bank thinks new home completions will reach around 33,000 this year, supporting credit formation.

Shares in Bank of Ireland were down sharply in the morning after the update, from Tuesday’s closing price of €8.734 each to as low as €8.31, before regaining ground to just under €8.50 by later yesterday afternoon.

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