DUBLIN--Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Monday the
country's rescued banks wouldn't need more capital as the country
prepares to exit its three-year bailout.
He was speaking after Bank of Ireland PLC and Allied Irish Banks
PLC--the country's two largest lenders---separately said they were
adequately capitalized after the completion of so-called Balance
Sheet Assessments by the Irish central bank. The lenders now face
full stress tests late next year under a Europe-wide process.
Bank of Ireland said the Irish central bank did not require it
to raise more capital, while Allied Irish Banks said it was "well
capitalized," and would assess its provisions in its year-end
financial statements for 2013.
However, Mr. Noonan told reporters the government had always
believed the banks would run down some of their capital "buffers"
that Irish taxpayers had provided the lenders over two years
ago.
"From my perspective there is no great surprise in this and we
hope that when the stress tests are done right across the European
banking system next year that we will be adequately provisioned,"
he said.
Mr. Noonan said that from 2014, the government will fund itself
entirely from bond markets as the country draws down the last of
its European Union and International Monetary Fund loans in the
coming weeks.
The Irish economy was on the mend, helped by "benign" events
abroad and a strong rise the government's tax revenue at home, Mr.
Noonan said in his remarks to a conference on European banking
union.
After a huge property and banking market crash over five years
ago, Ireland came close to bankruptcy. It was eventually forced to
strike a bailout deal with the EU and IMF in late 2010.
Write to Eamon Quinn at eamon.quinn@wsj.com
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