Bank of Ireland said today it had continued to perform strongly in the half-year to the end of September and that it expected its basic earnings per share (EPS) in the period to increase by around 30 per cent.
"We expect a strong group performance for the half year," Chief Executive Brian Goggin said in a trading statement, adding the bank's Irish businesses remained robust and that progress had been made in the United Kingdom and internationally.
The bank said that after stripping out disposal gains and allowing for any volatility in reporting its first-half results under Europe's new IFRS accounting standards, it expected underlying EPS to grow by around 9 per cent.
The bank reports under IFRS for the first time when it releases first-half results on November 24th.
Ireland's second largest company by market capitalisation said it expected total group income in the half-year to grow by around 6 per cent, driven by strong volume growth partly offset by lower net interest margins.
The bank said it expected pre-tax profit in its Irish retail unit to grow by around 16 per cent, with operating profit at its Life business expected to be up 30 per cent in the half-year.
Profit before tax at its wholesale financial services business was seen up 10 per cent, while in the United Kingdom its financial services were expected to yield pre-tax profit broadly in line with the same period last year, the bank said.