Central Bank sells €500m more Anglo Irish-linked bailout bonds

The Central Bank sold a further €500 million of bonds linked to the bailout of Anglo Irish Bank on Tuesday, bringing total disposals so far to €4.5 billion.

The securities were the result of the Central Bank receiving €25 billion of Government bonds in February 2013 under a complex restructuring of promissory notes used by the State to rescue Anglo Irish Bank during the financial crisis.

When Irish Bank Resolution Corp, as Anglo Irish Bank was renamed, was put into liquidation three years ago, the promissory notes were being used by the failed bank as collateral for emergency Central Bank funding. The Central Bank has been selling down the bond at a faster pace that it is obliged to do under the original 2013 agreement, as the value of the bonds have surged since then.

The National Treasury Management Agency said on Tuesday it had acquired the latest €500 million of June 2043 floating-rate notes from the Central Bank and duly cancelled them.

Some €20.5 billion of the Government bonds remain on the Central Bank’s balance sheet after the transaction.