Bank of Ireland said today it would report an excellent performance for the year to end-March and was confident that momentum would continue into the coming year.
The bank said it expected 15 per cent growth in underlying earnings per share for the year to end-March 2006, on the previous year's pro-forma underlying EPS - under International Financial Reporting Standards - of 102.3 cents.
The bank, whose key markets are Ireland and Britain, said it expected total group income to be up by about 7 per cent, driven by strong volume growth and partially offset by a margin decline of around 200 basis points.
In its Irish retail business it said it saw profit growth of around 18 per cent, with its Irish life and pensions
operation expected to deliver profit growth of 60 per cent and operating profit growth of around 40 per cent, driven by excellent new business volume.
Profit from wholesale financial services was seen rising by 15 per cent. In the United Kingdom, its financial services division was expected to show a profit increase of around 5 per cent, the bank said.
Fund outflows from its asset management business had continued but at a slower pace, and the bank said it expected profit from the business to be down around 30 per cent in line with previous guidance.