Bank of Ireland has said it expects to deliver high teens percentage earnings per share (EPS) growth for the full year.
In July, Bank of Ireland said it had enjoyed a strong start to its business year, underpinning its prediction for low to mid-teens percentage earnings growth for the full year.
Ireland's second biggest bank said in a statement today it was particularly pleased with anticipated strong profit growth in its UK Financial Services division during the first half, adding the economic backdrop continued to be positive and the credit environment benign.
As a result, it said it was expected underlying EPS to grow by about 25 per cent in the six months to end-September from €0.573 in 2005.
Analysts welcomed the update, which was more bullish than most expected. The bank is due to report first-half results on November 16th.
Shares in Bank of Ireland, which gained momentum last week, were 1.3 per cent higher at €5.19 on a Dublin market up an overall 0.4 per cent.
In its retail division in Ireland, the bank said it saw pre-tax profit growth of around 25 per cent, with loans, resources and revenue growth all strong.
On the life side, operating profit was expected to rise around 20 per cent, but pre-tax profit would be down 6 per cent under the effect of "the negative mark to market of embedded value in the current year due to weaker stock markets".
The bank's wholesale division had performed very strongly, it said, with pre-tax profit growth of around 45 per cent expected, while UK financial services were seen delivering growth of some 30 per cent.
Pre-tax profit at its asset management business, which has suffered significant fund outflows in the past few years, was likely to be down 31 per cent, the bank said.
Total group income growth was seen at around 12 per cent.