Permanent TSB has completed the acquisition of another 8,000 performing non-tracker residential mortgage loans from Ulster Bank in advance of the lender’s exit from the Irish market.
The latest tranche comprises loans with a value of about €915 million connected to some 11,000 customers. The transfer increases Permanent TSB’s mortgage book by about 4 per cent and means the lender has now completed the acquisition of this particular Ulster Bank portfolio.
The acquisition is part of a broader transaction by Permanent TSB to acquire certain elements of the Ulster Bank retail, SME and asset finance business in the Republic.
It builds on the €5.2 billion mortgage loans acquired by the bank in November 2022, bringing to €6.1 billion the amount of mortgage lending transferred to Permanent TSB by Ulster Bank.
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Permanent TSB’s mortgage book has increased by about 40 per cent as a result.
Permanent TSB also acquired 25 former Ulster Bank branch locations in January 2023 as part of the transaction. These have since been reopened as Permanent TSB branches.
The deal also involved the acquisition of Ulster Bank’s performing micro-SME loan book valued at €165 million in February. The bank will complete the acquisition of the entire Lombard Asset Finance business shortly and, with it, conclude the transaction as a whole.
Permanent TSB will write to customers connected to the 8,000 newly acquired mortgage loans in the coming weeks to provide them with comprehensive information about the transfer.
Permanent TSB chief executive Eamonn Crowley said the deal with Ulster Bank had been “transformative” for the bank.
“I am delighted to reach another major milestone in our acquisition of certain elements of Ulster Bank’s business as we welcome 11,000 more mortgage customers to Permanent TSB, in addition to the over 200,000 customers that we welcomed to the bank in 2022,” he said.
“This transaction has been transformative for us and further supports the delivery of our ambition to become Ireland’s best personal and small business bank.”
Permanent TSB said in recent weeks that its net interest income soared 86 per cent in the first three months of the year as it benefited from rising interest rates and the new business transferred from the departing Ulster Bank.
The bank is likely to upgrade its full-year forecasts when it announces its interim results during the summer, according to analysts.
Ulster Bank’s parent NatWest confirmed the wind-down of the bank here in 2021, weeks after The Irish Times broke the news of its plan. Its remaining branches effectively stopped doing business at the end of March.
