Anglo Irish Bank narrows record loss

State-rescued Anglo Irish Bank said Friday that its pre-tax losses narrowed to 101 million euros ($146 million) in the first half after an Irish corporate record loss of 8.2 billion euros a year earlier. The 2010 figure included huge losses on toxic loans Anglo Irish later sold to the National Asset Management Agency, the state's 'bad bank' set up to bailout out its bankrupt banking sector.
Anglo Irish, nationalised bank receiving 29.3 billion euros in rescue funding from the Irish government, is to be wound down by 2020. It merged with the Irish Nation-wide Building Society in June as part of the government's radical overhaul of the country's lenders. The new group has been named the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. Anglo Irish chairman Alan Dukes said on Friday that while the bank had made "considerable progress ... the unprecedented market turmoil, market liquidity and currency issues that currently face eurozone countries present a challenging background." Last November, eurozone member Ireland had to seek an 85 billion-euros rescue package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund as massive debt and deficit problems left the country on the verge of collapse.