Ireland Set to Launch Bad Bank After Parliament OK

[redqueen]

Source: Reuters

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's parliament on Thursday approved a 54-billion euro (48.6 billion pound) "bad bank" plan to remove banks' problem loans arising from a property market bust and help move Ireland out of recession.

Dublin has pumped 11 billion euros of capital into its banks, nationalised Anglo Irish Bank and introduced a blanket guarantee for bank liabilities, and now hopes the National Asset Management Agency will complete the clean-up of the sector.

"The Irish economy is suffering from a very sharp liquidity crisis which NAMA is designed to counteract," said Kevin McConnell, head of research at Bloxham Stockbrokers. "We do face a unique situation here."

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said on Thursday he aimed to appoint NAMA's board later this month and start transferring the biggest loans to NAMA within "a matter of weeks." The government hopes to move all the assets with a combined book value of 77 billion euros by around the middle of 2010.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/12/business/business-uk-ireland-banks-nama.html

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Oops! The NYTimes should have said "bad bank plan".