British bank Northern Rock said yesterday it had attracted deposits worth £270 million (€342.8 million) in the Irish market since its arrival here in November 1999.

Announcing its annual results yesterday, Northern Rock's chief executive, Mr Leo Finn, said the group's performance in the Irish market was in line with expectations. He estimates Northern Rock has captured around 1 per cent of the deposit market since its arrival.

The Newcastle-based bank has been gathering deposits in the Irish market as part of its retail funding. Customers have unlimited penalty-free access to their funds. In the year to the end of December 2000, the net total inflow of these funds across the group was £964 million sterling. This includes interest credited to customer accounts of £280 million.

Mr Finn said the popularity of fixed rate bonds and base rate tracker accounts in Britain continued to hold.

Northern Rock reported pretax profits of £250 million sterling, a rise of 16.3 per cent. Assets under management rose by 20 per cent to £24.9 billion.