Irish Life & Permanent has predicted the strength of the Irish property market should ensure its lending business will continue to perform well this year but said sales of its life assurance would fall.
In a trading statement, the company said its life business would be off around 40 per cent on the same period last year, largely due to the impact of SSIA sales last year.
Another cause of the fall-off in life assurance polices, the company said, was the consumer caution brought about due to the continuing slump in global equity markets.
However, a stronger banking performance should offset lower earnings from life assurance, the statement predicted.
Irish Life & Permanent said new lending in Ireland and Britain was expected to be around €2.6 billion, with new residential mortgage lending in Ireland up by more than 30 per cent.
Mortgage lending business in Britain is expected to grow by 50 per cent.
Irish Life & Permanent also said its short-term investment fluctuations were no positive, despite a significant negative outcome last year.