Latest news with #EamonnCrowley
Irish Examiner
09-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
PTSB chief says bank must produce results to attract investors
The chief executive of PTSB has said the bank has to 'produce the results that are attractive to investors' as it is about to become the last remaining pillar bank in Ireland in which the State has a significant stake in. The comments come following a decision by AIB earlier this week to buy back €1.2bn worth of shares from the Government, bringing the State's stake in the bank to 3.3%. Under the terms of the buyback, an off-market purchase of 191,671,857 ordinary shares in the bank will be made at a price of €6.2607 per share. The State is expected to divest from its remaining share in the company by the end of the year. When asked about this development, following his bank's annual general meeting, PTSB chief executive Eamonn Crowley said: 'We welcome the divestment of the state from AIB in the sense of how that has progressed, quite good for not only the State, but also for shareholders in AIB and for AIB itself'. "We will be the last of the three banks with some State stakeholding. Our job is obviously to ensure that we produce the results that are attractive to investors,' he said, adding a key part to this was the bank paying dividends. "We've stated it's our ambition to pay a dividend next year subject to regulatory approval. So these are all key factors in how we think about our own performance and then our attractiveness to potential shareholders,' he said. Shares in PTSB were trading at €1.72 on Friday. According to PTSB's share profile, the State owns 57.44% of the bank, which is worth just under €540m. The Government had invested €3.9bn into the bank during the financial crisis and through a combination of fees, dividend income and disposal proceeds, the State has to date recovered €2.7bn. In its latest trading update, PTSB said the impact of lower interest rates had seen its net interest income drop by 9% during the first three months of the year, but it has kept its targets for the year in place on the back of strong lending. The lender now holds a 20% share of the Irish mortgage market, up from just over 16% at the end of 2024. New business lending was also up 25%, with total gross loans rising to €22bn, up 1% since the year-end. Customer deposits also rose, increasing by 3% to a total €24.9bn. Mr Crowley said demand for mortgages as well as business lending was strong. He said there was 'more than the sense' the bank was a 'challenger' now in the market when it comes to business lending. 'We're picking up new business in that sense.' Earlier this year, PTSB said it was well-provisioned coming into 2025 and modelled more 'conservative' impairment scenarios than the consensus due to uncertain global economic outlook. PTSB chief financial officer Barry D'Arcy said despite the global upheaval in trade seen in recent months, 'we're not seeing anything on the ground in terms of customer behavior or anything to that effect'. 'We're not seeing anything right now, which is really positive. The Irish consumer is very resilient, and the way we've underwritten portfolios in recent times have changed, and then the macro credential rules came on top. So I think it's in a pretty good space,' he said. Read More IAG posts profit surge despite €55m loss at Aer Lingus
RTÉ News
09-05-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Customers can trust PTSB's IT systems, CEO says
The chief executive of PTSB, Eamonn Crowley, has insisted that customers can trust the bank's IT systems following two major outages in recent months. In April, a technical problem left many people unable to access the PTSB app and website for several hours. Last November, customers were also hit with payment delays due to a major technical issue with a third-party provider. Speaking to reporters following the PTSB AGM this morning, Mr Crowley said the bank has invested heavily in IT. "Over the last four years, we've invested over €200m in our IT systems. It is progressing so customers can trust us and we do provide a good service," Mr Crowley said. "I'm a customer of PTSB myself so I understand that frustration, but the reality is we are doing the best we can and we're continuing to invest, our systems are good in that sense," he added. Earlier this year, PTSB said it had priced in the economic impact of 10-15% US tariffs being imposed on European goods in forecasting potential bad loan losses. Today, the PTSB boss said that fears over US tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty had so far not impacted its business. In February, the bank announced that around 300 jobs would be cut in 2025 as part of a voluntary redundancy scheme that was launched last year. Mr Crowley said today that the process was continuing and that the bank was making good progress on reducing its cost base.
Irish Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
PTSB chief praises takeover target Finance Ireland at historically short AGM
PTSB chief executive Eamonn Crowley has said Finance Ireland 'is a fine business', but declined to comment on the bank's bid approach for the nonbank lender. The Irish Times reported last month that PTSB made an unsolicited overture late last year to buy the largest nonbank lender in the State, run by Billy Kane, a former chief executive of Irish Permanent, a precursor of the bank. While PTSB is known to remain interested in doing a deal, there is said to be a wide gap between both sides on price expectation. 'We're not going to comment on Finance Ireland, but just to say that it is a fine business. We know Billy Kane quite well,' Mr Crowley said in response to reporters' questions, after the bank held its annual general meeting in Dublin. 'It's a business that is complementary to what we do.' READ MORE Finance Ireland reported a day earlier that its pretax profit jumped 95 per cent last year to €20.3 million as lending grew and funding costs for the sector declined. Its total new lending rose 19 per cent from 2023 to €646 million. Customer loan balances increased by 14 per cent to €1.2 billion, comprising car, commercial real estate, agri and small business loans. The bank decided in March to get out of mortgage lending, a business it had entered in 2018. Industry sources have suggested PTSB would have to pay in excess of €300 million to get Finance Ireland's owners to agree to see. The business is 51 per cent-owned by US investment management giant Pimco , which is said to not be in a rush to sell. London-based investment company M&G owns almost 40 per cent, with the remainder held by management. Sretaw, an investment owned by businessman Eamon Waters that has a 7 per cent in PTSB, told The Irish Times last month Finance Ireland would find it hard to command a valuation far above €100 million if it were a listed company – unless recent results and the future business plan 'show a step change in prospects'. PTSB's agm lasted less than 20 minutes, the shortest such meeting for a listed Irish bank in recent memory, with only two shareholders questions coming from the floor. Chief financial officer Barry D'Arcy said the bank remains on track to make a submission to the Central Bank by the end of June seeking to lower the perceived riskiness of its mortgage book for the purpose of calculating how much expensive capital the bank must hold. Bank of America analysts have estimated PTSB could free up €270 million of capital on its balance sheet as a result of a recalibration of its models. RBC Capital Markets estimates it could release a little over €200 million. Mr Crowley reiterated that the bank is hoping to return to paying dividends next year for the first time since before the financial crisis. This could pave the way for the State, which continues to own 57 per cent of the bank, to go about reducing its stake in the bank. 'Our job is to ensure we have the products and the results that are attractive to investors,' said Mr Crowley. 'A key part of any investment play is to see the bank paying dividends and making a return to investors.' PTSB said last week that its share of new mortgage lending rose to more than 20 per cent in the first quarter of the year, and that it has made 'a good start to 2025' even as the global economy dealt with mounting uncertainty. Mortgage lending marked a significant improvement from 13.4 per cent in the same period last year, and the 16.4 per cent rate for 2024 as a whole. Mr Crowley said that new lending in its relatively small business banking unit was up 25 per cent on the year, with small-to-medium-sized enterprise activity 'having a particularly good start to the year'.
RTÉ News
30-04-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
PTSB's mortgage share tops 20% in first quarter
Permanent TSB Group Holdings said its net interest income reduced by 9% in the first quarter of this year due to the impact of lower interest rates. The bank's net interest margin (NIM) fell to 2.03% in the first three months of the year from 2.31% the same time last year. But the bank said that recent deposit rate reductions which became effective from April 2 will help negate the effect of further downward movements in base rates. It said it still expects NIM to exceed 2% for the year. In a trading update today, PTSB said its share of new mortgage drawdowns in the first quarter of 2025 was over 20%, up significantly when compared with a level of 13.4% in 2024. It noted that "green" mortgage lending accounted for 41% of all new loans in the quarter, and said the reduction in its mortgage fixed rates announced in mid-January continues to support its effort to maintain its competitive presence in the market. PTSB said total gross loans on its balance sheet rose to €22 billion at the end of March, up about 1% on the €21.8 billion at the end of December 2024. The bank said its total operating expenses were down about 4% in the first quarter, adding that it remains on track to meet its cost target of €525m for the year. PTSB said its voluntary severance scheme is at an advanced stage and when combined with management actions and natural attrition, it continues to expect a reduction in staff numbers of about 300 this year. The lender said that economic conditions in Ireland are supportive of its business and asset quality remains strong. Non-performing loans at the end of March were unchanged relative to the year end and represented about 1.7% of gross loans, it said adding that it had booked a "small" €1m impairment charge. "The bank will continue to closely monitor the impact of US trade tariffs on the Irish economy, however notwithstanding heightened uncertainty, PTSB is well provisioned and coming into 2025 had modelled more conservative impairment scenarios than consensus," it added. Eamonn Crowley, the bank's chief executive, said that PTSB recorded a strong start to 2025 with all key financial metrics in the first quarter tracking well against plan. "Our core mortgage business entered the year with a strong pipeline and we recorded a share of new mortgage drawdowns in Q1 of over 20%, continuing the momentum we showed through 2024. Meanwhile new Business Banking lending was up 25% year-on-year, with our SME business having a particularly good start to the year," Mr Crowley said. "We are translating our refreshed strategy into action and continue to build our competitive presence as the Challenger Bank in the Irish market," he stated. "Our funding and capital positions remain strong and notwithstanding heightened uncertainty associated with the global picture on international trade and how this might impact Ireland, we remain confident about the prospects for our business in 2025," he added.
Irish Examiner
30-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
PTSB sees interest income drop 9%
The impact of lower interest rates saw PTSB's net interest income to drop by 9% in the first quarter, but the bank has reiterated its targets for this year on the back of strong lending. The bank has grown its share of Ireland's mortgage market from 16.4% last year to 20%. New business lending was also up 25%. Total gross loans rose to €22bn, up 1% since the year-end. Customer deposits of €24.9bn represent a 3% rise. Chief Executive Eamonn Crowley said all key financial metrics were tracking well. "We are translating our refreshed strategy into action and continue to build our competitive presence as the Challenger Bank in the Irish market. Our funding and capital positions remain strong and notwithstanding heightened uncertainty associated with the global picture on international trade and how this might impact Ireland, we remain confident about the prospects for our business in 2025," he said. In a note this morning on PTSB's update, analysts from Davy said their 2025 forecasts will remain unchanged. While the main impact of tariff-induced global uncertainty is to lower ECB rate expectations, they do not see this impacting 2025 but will likely result in lower net interest income in 2026, Davy said. However, housing remains a key priority for the Irish Government and policy and measures to increase output, to meet demand, would benefit the mortgage market, to which PTSB is heavily geared.
