PROFITS for the three months to the end of December at Anglo-Irish Bankcorp are well ahead of the same period in 1995, and all sectors are ahead of targets, the chairman of the bank, Mr Gerry Murphy, said yesterday.
Speaking at the Anglo-Irish annual general meeting, Mr Murphy said the bank had no plans to change the nature of its operations in 1997 and would continue to concentrate on secured lending to the middle market and professional and corporate sectors in Ireland and Britain.
"The strategy for treasury is to develop a well-diversified funding base and to maintain the policy of funding the loan portfolio from private and commercial deposit sources," Mr Murphy said.
Speaking after the meeting, the company's chief executive, Mr Sean FitzPatrick, said 70 per cent of the company's business was still in Ireland, with the rest in Britain.
"We have no ambition to change that. We understand the market in both, but the Irish economy is going well. Ireland is the powerhouse of the bank," he added.
He said that the move towards economic and monetary union would likely generate some volatility, but would go ahead anyway.
"Our plans are based on us going into EMU. It may cause some problems, but I don't believe anything major," he added.
