NCB Stockbrokers is recommending that investors add Irish Life & Permanent shares to their portfolio. The broker suggests the stock offers the purest play - amongst the larger Irish financial stocks - on the personal banking and long-term savings market in Ireland.

The segments in which it operates are set to continue to grow rapidly, against a backdrop of a rising young population, and a continuing shift away from traditional deposit products in a low interest rate environment. NCB maintains that it offers good value for investors relative to the higher qualifying euro-zone life and pensions and bancassurance stocks.