TALKS BETWEEN Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the entity formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank, and investment group Key Capital on the proposed sale of IBRC wealth-management assets and the outsourcing of a wind-down of the division, have ended abruptly.

IBRC has backed away from the plan to outsource the running down of the wealth management division to Key Capital and decided not to outsource this process to any party. The wealth-management division will now be wound down over a five-year period in tandem with the wind-down of the rest of the nationalised bank.

In a statement, IBRC said the exclusive discussions with Key Capital about the proposed asset sale had “concluded that proceeding with this arrangement will not deliver the best outcome for all stakeholders”.

Tom Hunersen, the bank’s group executive for corporate and institutional recovery, said it would continue the orderly wind-down of the division over a five-year period using its existing resources.

“The bank appreciates Key Capital’s full commitment to this process and welcomes the opportunity to work with Key Capital again in the future,” he said.

There will be no operational changes to the business in the short term, the bank added. Clients will be notified of any changes that may impact them or their investments “in due course”.

IBRC entered into the talks with Dublin-based Key Capital to offload “certain assets” of the wealth-management business in February.

The business has about €2.5 billion of the bank’s loans linked to deals. There are about 50 property funds in the wealth-management business, some with several properties, which were sold through policies to Anglo customers via a separate regulated company called Anglo Irish Assurance Company.

At the outset of the talks IBRC had described Key Capital as a “strategic fit for IBRC’s clients” and said a deal with the group had the potential to “maximise investor returns and deliver value for the Irish taxpayer”.

Key Capital had viewed the deal as a platform for it to grow an international real-estate asset-management business. Had the deal gone ahead, IBRC’s clients may have been offered access to products and services through Key Capital Private, its joint venture with Deutsche Bank.

Several other parties had also been interested in discussing a deal with IBRC at the time.