DUBLIN (Reuters) -Allied Irish Banks (AIB) has entered exclusive talks with NatWest Group to acquire about 6 billion euros ($6.3 billion) of Irish tracker mortgage loans as the British group looks to complete its exit from Ireland.
NatWest announced a little more than a year ago that it was winding down its underperforming Ulster Bank business, which had a loan book amounting to about 20 billion euros.
AIB, Ireland’s largest mortgage lender, said that any potential deal for the mortgages, which track the European Central Bank interest rate, remains subject to negotiation.
Ireland’s competition regulator on Thursday cleared AIB’s acquisition of 3.7 billion euros of commercial loans from Ulster Bank, which is also selling other loan books, branches and its asset finance business to permanent TSB.
Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe welcomed the AIB announcement on Friday, saying a deal would provide a significant number of Ulster Bank customers with certainty on their mortgages.
($1 = 0.9492 euros)
(Reporting by Padraic HalpinEditing by David Goodman)
