Cantillon: Always look on the bright side of life . . .

Winston Churchill once said success consisted of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

The saying seems to speak true of Ulster Bank which, despite being the worst performing section of the RBS group with losses of nearly €400 million in the first six months, continues to look on the bright side. It seems to be the only one doing so.

British chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne wants to jettison the bank from its parent group to help prepare the 81 per cent state-owned group for a return to the private sector.

RBS chairman Philip Hampton believes the bank has been a “profound problem” for the parent group.

Northern Ireland finance minister Sammy Wilson said he was convinced the approach being taken by Ulster Bank was "designed only to meet their own short- term needs and is damaging the longer term interests of the local economy."

Even IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick has got in on the bank-bashing act, saying: “I sometimes wonder if the senior management in Ulster Bank are deliberately trying to sabotage the bank’s future by their cavalier approach to their customers and staff.”

It would seem Ulster Bank chief executive Jim Brown is the only one seeing any positives.

After reporting half year operating losses of €387 million yesterday, he said the bank “continues to demonstrate good progress” with “an increase in total income, significant decrease in operating loss and impairments, a sustained increase in customer deposits, an improvement in loan to deposit ratio and a stable net interest margin”.

Tracker mortgages, which make up 65 per cent the Ulster’s mortgage book in the Republic, have been a disaster for the bank. That is €13 billion of the bank’s capital tied up in business that basically makes no money, with the interest charged on tracker mortgages less than the banks’ cost of funding.

Once again though, Brown sees an upside. “We have seen the first decline in mortgage arrears since 2008,” he has noted.

He says the bank is committed to supporting the communities it operated in and serving the needs its 1.9 million customers across the island of Ireland.

It remains to be seen whether its main shareholder, the British government, share the same sentiment.