Earnings call transcript: Bank of Ireland Q1 2025 sees positive market reaction

Bank of Ireland Group PLC (BIRG) reported its first-quarter 2025 earnings, showcasing a solid performance that led to a 1.16% rise in its stock price, closing at 10.34. With a market capitalization of $11.6 billion and an impressive InvestingPro Financial Health Score of "GREAT," the company’s robust financial metrics and strategic initiatives have contributed to a positive market sentiment, despite minor adjustments in future projections.

Key Takeaways

• Bank of Ireland’s CET1 ratio stands strong at 15.9%.
• Core loan book growth driven by a 3.5% increase in Irish mortgages.
• Reinvestment of €3 billion into bonds, yielding a 50 basis point spread.
• Anticipation of ECB rate cuts, maintaining strategic pricing discipline.

Company Performance

Bank of Ireland demonstrated resilience in its Q1 2025 performance, underpinned by strong capital generation and a solid CET1 ratio. The bank’s strategic reinvestments and hedging strategies have positioned it well against potential economic fluctuations. With revenue growth of 5.58% and a notably low P/E ratio of 7.44x, the company’s focus on maintaining robust asset quality and reducing non-performing exposures has further strengthened its competitive position. InvestingPro analysis reveals 7 additional key insights about the bank’s financial health and growth prospects.

Financial Highlights

• Net Capital Generation: 50 basis points.
• Fully Loaded CET1 Ratio: 15.9%.
• Net Interest Income (NII) Guidance for 2024: Over €3.25 billion.
• Projected NII for 2026: Around €3.25 billion (revised from €3.3 billion).

Market Reaction

The stock price of Bank of Ireland rose by 1.16% following the earnings announcement, reflecting positive investor sentiment. According to InvestingPro Fair Value analysis, the stock appears undervalued at current levels. The company maintains an attractive dividend yield of 11.71% and has raised its dividend for three consecutive years, demonstrating strong shareholder returns. The stock remains within its 52-week range of 8 to 12.62, indicating market confidence in the company’s strategic direction and financial health.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, Bank of Ireland maintains a disciplined approach to pricing in anticipation of potential ECB rate cuts. The bank continues to focus on progressive dividends and the return of surplus capital. With a strong return on equity of 11% and healthy cash flows, despite minor adjustments in projected net interest income for 2026, the bank’s strategic initiatives are expected to support sustained growth. Discover comprehensive analysis and detailed metrics in the Pro Research Report, available exclusively on InvestingPro.

Executive Commentary

CEO Miles O’Grady emphasized the supportive domestic economy and the bank’s strategic positioning amidst global trade discussions. He stated, "Our business model is well positioned to manage the potential impact of current global trade discussions," highlighting the bank’s proactive approach to navigating economic uncertainties.

Risks and Challenges

• Potential impacts from global trade negotiations.
• Economic implications of anticipated ECB rate cuts.
• Continued market volatility affecting asset management.
• Strategic management of non-performing exposures.
• Maintaining competitive pricing amidst economic shifts.

Overall, Bank of Ireland’s Q1 2025 performance and strategic initiatives have fostered a cautiously optimistic market sentiment, with the bank well-positioned to navigate future economic challenges.

Full transcript - Bank of Ireland Group PLC (BIRG) Q1 2025:

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bank of Ireland Q1 IMS Analyst Call. Please note that the call will be recorded. During today’s call, webcast participants will be in a listen only mode while we conduct the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, we ask that you please use the raised hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen.

Instructions will also follow at the time of q and a. I would now like to turn the call over to chief executive officer, Miles O’Grady. Please go ahead.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Hi. Good morning from Dublin, and welcome, to an update on Bank of Ireland’s quarter one trading. We had a very good start to the year with performance and profitability in line with our expectations, and our guidance for the year remains unchanged. This morning, I’m going to cover our quarter one highlights. I’ll touch on our view of the macroeconomic environment, and I’ll reaffirm our outlook to 2027.

And after this, Mark and I are very happy to answer your questions. On quarter one, our performance is in line with expectations as we progress through the final year of our three year strategy. The key highlights include core loan book growth, notably in Irish mortgages by 3.5% annualized, and stable deposits in the quarter. In volatile markets, our wealth and insurance assets under management were stable, supported by continued net inflows, and asset quality remains robust. All of this translates to net capital generation of 50 basis points and a fully loaded CET1 ratio of 15.9%.

But in summary, I’m very happy with the group’s overall business performance and profitability in the quarter. The current economic backdrop is, of course, colored by evolving international trade negotiations. As you would expect, we will carefully assess any potential risks, particularly relating to credit formation, credit quality, and market volatility. As I said in February, when the group published its 2024 results, we remain confident in the resilience of the Irish economy with strong fiscal position, favorable demographics, and employment. We’ve updated our Irish economic forecast also published today and see 2025 GDP growth at 3.5% and employment growth up by 1.8%.

This level of economic activity, combined with the execution of our strategy, supports our positive outlook. The trade negotiations are likely to be protracted, but we entered this period from a position of strength both in terms of the Irish economy and Bank of Ireland’s balance sheet. Bringing it all together, we had a very good start to the year, and the domestic economy remains supportive. The Bank of Ireland equity story of a differentiated business model, operating in attractive markets, generating high levels of sustainable capital remains unchanged. Our business model is well positioned to manage the potential impact of current global trade discussions, and this underpins our outlook to 2027.

Thank you for your interest, and very happy now to open the line to questions.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our q and a session. If you have a question, we ask that you please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Once your name has been announced, please unmute your line and ask your question. If you want to withdraw your question, please lower your hand using the raise hand function. Thank you.

And we’ll wait a moment for the first question. Our first question comes from Grace Dargan at Barclays. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Grace Dargan, Analyst, Barclays: Morning. Thank you both for doing the conference call. It’s very helpful. I just want to start by asking, so, note the comments around, your kind of in house economic forecasts. How should we be thinking about that in terms of sensitivity to your ECL?

Maybe just to help give us a steer into H one because I appreciate that’s when you’ll update. And then secondly, again, noting for ’25, I guess, you’re talking about slightly lower ECB rate assumptions as we’d expect. How are you thinking about the risks to the medium term outlook? And I guess, in particular, the NII in ’twenty six and ’twenty seven that you called out at full year.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Grace, good morning, and thank you, for those questions. I’m gonna ask Mark to take the relation between the macro, forecast at this year. But let me take the the second question, the the broader question on on outlook. And, again, in the context today of sharing our latest, economic forecast, where, of course, the impact of of the trade environment has seen our forecast come down a little bit, but actually still very strong. GDP at 3.5% this year, unemployment at 1.8.

And I called that out to you because, you know, back in February when we shared our outlook to ’27, maybe to recap on those pillars. I spoke about the economic environment, about terms of GDP over three years to be above 10%. Based on everything we know today, that still has remained valid in the context of credit formation, particularly given some of the structural opportunities in Ireland, particularly relating to, the mortgage business. And I spoke about earlier, our mortgage book, grew on an annualized basis by 3.5%. Last year, it grew by 6%.

So those factors are are very positive. And indeed, from a wealth of insurance perspective, when I look at the quarter one performance where markets were down, but inflows were up, Again, that supports, our overall view on the ability for that business to be supportive. So it there’s no doubt that we are in a period of protracted negotiations on tariffs. I I referenced that earlier. But the fundamentals that support the key drivers for value creation, the drivers that support capital generation, as we sit here today, they remain broadly unchanged, recognizing, of course, that the downside risk is there as well.

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: I’ll ask Mark to take the UCL question. Yeah. Great. Morning, Grace. So maybe just to maybe to frame it, Grace, the overall asset quality.

It’s our overall asset quality remains very robust. NPE ratio remains at very low levels. And then if I look at portfolio performance in q one as well, that has been very much in line with our expectations, and that’s why we’re we’re reiterating our guidance for the year, low to mid 20 basis points. As you know, we update the macro scenarios on a semiannual basis, so we’ll do that in June. What I’d note actually in relation to the economic forecast that that that we’ve issued this morning is if you look at our weighted average scenario in December, those your date this morning is very, very similar to that.

Grace Dargan, Analyst, Barclays: Perfect. Thank you. And maybe Oh, thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Of course. Our next question Sorry, guys. Did did you want to okay. Sorry. Keep going.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Sanjina Dharawala from UBS. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Sanjina Dharawala, Analyst, UBS: Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Two, please, helpful statements on the outlook. If I could ask particularly on your expectations for net interest income within that, and the latest thinking for ’26 and ’27. I know we had shared some numbers with full year results.

So how are you thinking about those in the current context? And, also, you you touched upon the demand environment a bit, but so just like loans are flat in one q. I know there are portfolio exits in there, but if you could talk about customer behavior and then if there’s any change in the thinking about ’25 growth and beyond.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Sanjeeta, good morning, and thank you for those questions. I’ll ask Mark to take the question on on net interest income. From from a customer behavior perspective, I mean, as you would expect, we do it anyway, but, of course, with greater intensity given the the backdrop. And we remain very close to our customers. And by that, I mean, different from my perspective, I I have been meeting our foreign direct investment customers.

I know our corporate banking team have also been reaching out to our large corporate customers. And our sectors team, in the context of the domestic economy, got very strong coverage on the ground. My colleagues have also been reaching out. And and the overall view right now is as you would expect, there’s a little bit of caution in the system, and I think that’s entirely reasonable. So for example, you know, possibly if if our some business were were willing to make an asset investment in quarter one, pretty much on a short term basis, they are just pausing a little bit I may be waiting until quarter two or later in the year to see how things play out, particularly as news emerges.

And I I know that even overnight, there has been positive, soundings coming out in relation to China, commenting on willing to negotiate. There was commentary on, the EU willing to, buy more US goods and and also some relief for pharma as well in relation to tariffs. So as time progresses, it feels like there is a a good news coming out generally. We’re still in a period of want to be very mindful of, but it does feel like the environment is manageable. And certainly, our customers, I would say, remain, remain optimistic, but are being appropriately cautious right now in the very short term.

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: Alright. Great. Good morning, Sanjina. So maybe just in terms of net interest income overall. So firstly, in the first quarter, very much performs in line with our expectations.

We’re reiterating our guidance, for this year of NII to be greater than 3,250,000,000. That’s notwithstanding slightly lower rates. As you recall, at the full year results, we’ve provided the aggregate to 2027. And at that stage, our expectation NII was that 2026, a little bit higher than than 3,300,000,000.0, and 2027 of the order of 3,500,000,000.0. I’d say the key drivers underpinning that trajectory, so loan growth, deposit growth, and the benefits of the structural hedge, those remain very much intact.

If I look at the any delta today versus where we were two months ago so the only delta is the rates in 2026 are slightly lower than than than were projected two months ago. So the impact of that, they’re about 40 bps lower. So about one sixty for the ECB on the rate versus the 2% social we had two months ago. I’d say that the impact that’s partially offset by some treasury actions we’ve taken, let’s say, this momentum. So if I was trying to mark to market today, I’d say that NII is probably closer to 3,250,000,000.00 in 2026.

But then if we think about the rates impact to 2027, that’s much more modest. So I think the, the 3,500,000,000.0 for 2027, that’s very much still, achievable. Thanks, Mark.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Next question our next question comes from Chris Can’t at Autonomous. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Chris, Analyst, Autonomous: Good morning, both. Thanks for taking my question. Just to follow-up on that previous question, really, I guess this is the key thing people want to understand today. Thinking through the shape of the progression of ECB rates, how do you think your deposit pricing dynamics are likely to work as we go through ’26 and ’27? So with ECB rate, I mean, the market’s pricing for rates to come down and then go back up again.

So do you look through that period and potentially take additional pain in ’26 by not passing on on cuts aggressively? How should we think about how that development might play through just in terms of how you think about managing the the customer relationship through through deposit pricing? Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Thanks a lot, Chris. And, I mean, our our overall, consistent, approach, commercial approach, and our strategy to to maintain pricing discipline on both sides of our balance sheet, both in the context of mortgage pricing and in the context of deposits remains unchanged. That we feel that strategy has worked very well for us. It worked well where rates were increasing steeply, and our approach to having adopted a balanced approach to applying higher rates to mortgages, but rewarding to positive customers more. A similar approach, as rates gravitate down.

And so, certainly, in all of the guidance that Mark has provided and indeed in the outlook that I’ve offered on overall returns, the fundamental drivers, supporting that and shrink and remain unchanged. Of course, they are, a a growing loan book, growing deposit book underpinned by pricing discipline, and, of course, also the positive benefit of of our hedging strategy. But, certainly, a very well disciplined margin management will continue to be a priority for us, Chris.

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: And, Chris, maybe I’ll just add about, you know, if I look at the low term tax in q one this year, very much in line with our expectations, some trending lower, and then if I look at some of the weekly trends, you’ll see sort of weekly flows just moderating. So very much playing out with the line of expectations, and therefore, you know, as as you mentioned, that that rate curve inverts, ECB is projected to go back up to one seventy five in September 2026. But what if I think about, you know, the cost of those term deposits, that becomes much less of a factor in our development as we as we go forward.

Chris, Analyst, Autonomous: Just in terms of thinking about how quick the term book churns, what’s the the sort of average tenor, I guess, of your term deposit customers? They’re fairly short.

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: Yes. Yeah. So, Chris, there’s a there’s a mix in there, but but certainly the most popular product over the last twelve months or so would have been our our our two year term product, which we’re which we’re paying two and a half percent off.

Chris, Analyst, Autonomous: Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Thanks, Chris.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Borje Ramirez from Citi. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Borje Ramirez, Analyst, Citi: Hello. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I have two. Firstly, on the NII, I would like to ask if you could give a bit more details on the gearing to the steeper yield curve.

So you I understand that you the the structural hedge is a is a is a positive benefit over a hundred million euro per annum for next three years. But then I think you you you have also opportunity to reinvest your excess liquidity into the bond portfolio. So I would like to ask if you could please give a bit more, indications on the on the potential, upside to NII. So that would be my first question. And then I would like to to ask, related to to the to the asset, if you could comment also on the on the overlay provision.

I think it’s 57,000,000 as of 2024. I think it’s related to to CRE. So if you could kindly provide a bit a bit more indications there. Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Good morning, Borje. Thanks for those questions, Mark.

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: Do you wanna Yes. Absolutely. Good. So, Borje, absolutely, you’ve been in the context of the of the U curve that presents opportunities as well, and we used that earlier. So just on on the the second part of your NII question, we’ve we’ve been quite conservative in terms of our approach on liquid assets, a lot of cash at the ECB.

And, obviously, over the last number of years, I would say, spreads on bonds have been quite compressed. That’s what we changed, over the last six months or so. So that presents opportunities, and we’ve taken advantage of some of that over the, year to date. We’ve reinvested about 3,000,000,000, of cash, into bonds. That’s that’s yielding a spread of somewhere around, 50 basis points.

There’s a little bit more to go on that as well, which, again, as I mentioned earlier, that provides some offset to some of, let’s say, the rate, impacts, versus, two months ago in 2026. On the hedge, hedge, get a key driver of our NII trajectory as 2027. As I mentioned before, your results, may have been a little bit over appreciated by the market. Suppose the key point there is that the the gross received fixed leg of that, it’s not priced at market. So the average yield last year was that one seventy.

That will move to two twenty, two 30, two 40 levels, over the next number of years. So that’s a real positive for us in terms of development. And if I look at q one, the reinvestment yields in q one, Russia, will be better than planned. Again, that provides a benefit a better most benefit going forwards. If I look at the projected yields in terms of reinvestment rates over the next period of time, they’re now in line with plans.

So I don’t need any further delta there based on rate curves right now. And and then finally, on the, on the PMA, yes. We have a PMA of just over 60,000,000. It is CRE related. Ordering put that in place at the end of twenty twenty three.

We expect that to be incorporated into models, this year. And, again, similar to the the comments earlier in terms of the macro assessment, we look at all those items on on a semi annual basis, but nothing to say right now. I should not mention overall basket quality, very, very close.

Borje Ramirez, Analyst, Citi: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Thank you, Boris.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Stimpson from KBW. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Andrew, we can’t hear you just in case you’re you’re talking. Sorry. Sorry. Can you

Andrew Stimpson, Analyst, KBW: hear me now?

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: No problem. Yes. Loud and clear.

Andrew Stimpson, Analyst, KBW: I’ll get used to it one day. Two two for me, please. One one on credit and one on on customers, please. Appreciate the the NPE ratio is definitely still at a very low absolute level, but nevertheless, it did increase in the quarter. And there wasn’t really a comment, unless I missed it, on how provisions are going so far in the first quarter.

So just wondering if you could tell us what caused that increase in the NPEs, please, and maybe whether that’s Ireland or UK or elsewhere, and maybe how how coverage levels have changed, please? And then and then secondly, as you said, you changed the GDP assumption. I don’t think there was too much of a change in the numbers, which I think is roughly what we’ve seen from lots of other economists. So I just wanted to ask, with with those conversations that you’ve been having with the corporates, Miles, I appreciate the comments you made on the volumes already. Has there been any indication from those corporates that they’re looking to make any headcount adjustments yet or or anything that could inform us about the the outlook for unemployment, please?

Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Yeah. Sure. Certainly, Andrew. Thank you. Thank you for that.

And the the, the reason why so this may be obvious to say, but the reason why we call that those those two metrics is from a bank borrowing and balance sheet perspective, GDP and employment probably are the two most important important factors. And that’s why we are encouraged by, that the levels of employment continue to remain strong. Again, as you say, not significantly changed from from kind of pre April 2 tariff communications. So the answer to the best, Andrew, is is no, certainly from an IRS perspective. We do know that globally, we’ve seen some communications.

For example, Intel have announced globally a reduction in headcount, and, of course, Intel have a significant operation in Ireland. So, you know, we can expect that that that may have some impact. But, again, nothing coming out at this point regarding any initiatives to reduce headcount. Just to put that into context for you, we look at the overall employment levels in Ireland. About 11% of total employment is from, foreign direct investment sectors.

So whilst it’s certainly big for sure, but in the context of an overall employment base where 89% is from the domestic economy, I think that offers a level of confidence. And and maybe also just on a related point, Earlier, I spoke about our mortgage book, and on an annualized basis, grew by 3.5% in the quarter. And certainly, when I speak with the mortgage team, the pipeline applications in particular, that remains very strong. I think, again, that that’s a good proxy for for confidence, regarding employment. And also to say, as a metric, like, less than 2% of our mortgage applications are from employees and pharma, which, you know, one might say is one of the sectors that that, you know, is is potentially impacted by by the current trade negotiations.

So, again, at this point, Andrew, no communication to me in relation to headcount reductions for Irish operations from foreign direct investment.

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: Mark on credit? Yeah. So just the NPE ratio, Andrew, you asked about the the in q one of some very low levels, really, so 2.2, two point five. And and that’s just a number of particular specific case developments in corporate space. So and that’s not unusual.

That’s sort of, I’d say, BAU. What I’d maybe just speak about MP overall, we do mention in the release that we know it’s continued to progress reductions to our organic and inorganic means. And certainly, we’re looking from an inorganic perspective with a further transaction in ’2 this year.

Andrew Stimpson, Analyst, KBW: Thank you very much.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Thanks, Stephanie. Our

Conference Operator: next question comes from Jordan Bartlam at Mediobanca. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Jordan Bartlam, Analyst, Mediobanca: Morning, both. I had a quick one on the term piece. So you said it’s kind of all running, broadly in line with expectations. It’s about 600,000,000.0, last quarter. So sorry.

4 q. I think you’d also kinda guided towards maybe about a billion, over the course of ’25. So the point seven does sound like it might be running a little bit, above that run rate. You did say it seems to be tapering towards the end of the quarter, but I wonder if, you know, maybe while it’s brought in line with expectations, whether it’s maybe a little bit heavier than you previously anticipated. And then maybe one other one if possible.

In terms of you said that 11% of employment relates to FDI industries dominated industries. In terms of the amount of deposits and banking services that you’re providing to those types of industries, particularly on deposit piece, is there a risk that if there is some redomiciling, primarily to The US, whether you could see deposit outflows, or or is that not really a risk, that you’re aware of?

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Hi. Good morning, Jordan. Thanks for that. Let me take this to the the second question first, then Mark Mark can respond on term. I mean, generally, from a positive perspective, you know, Bank of Ireland, banks about 60% of foreign direct investment into Ireland.

So those relationships are are hugely important and actually particularly helpful now as we as we get a sense of their of their understanding of of the global events. But, actually, it is it’s far more biased towards a banking operational relationship, you know, banking banking services for employees in particular, and less biased towards either lending or deposits risk on the bottom the I think it’s not, you know, it’s not material. Yep. It’s more about the the broader banking operations relationship rather than balance sheet activity. On the term, Mark?

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: Yeah. On the on the term, so just maybe to provide context on that. So last year, flow to term was 3,200,000,000.0. So 1,000,000,000 wasn’t wasn’t our expectation for the year. Just to be clear on that, we did we did guide for the year that we stated the slow term to reduce from last year’s level.

And and let’s say, basically, we’ve seen q one very much trending in line with that, that expectation.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Stuart.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Dermot Sheridan at Davy. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Dermot Sheridan, Analyst, Davy: Good morning. Thank you. Just one question, please. Just on capital, obviously, very strong. And I appreciate there is that little bit of uncertainty in the market.

But you’ve talked previously about getting back down to just over 14%. Just wondering if any of your kind of thoughts have changed as to the timing or how you might affect that just given given where capital is at q one? Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Hi, Derek. Thanks for that. So maybe this reoccurring business model continues to be highly capital generative, so 50 basis points in the quarter. And overall outlook for the year, remains strong as well. So in in summary, Jeremy, the distribution policy and the distribution approach that I would have communicated back on the twenty fourth of of February, in a positive way, remains unchanged.

We expect the, our distribution this year to be a combination of a progressive DBS on earnings and, of course, the return of surplus capital, which would be a decision we expect to take on an annual basis. It’s very much consistent with, with previous guidance on that point. But I’d reiterate, the strong capital generation capability, as we’re seeing as the year progresses.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland0: Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Thanks very much.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Shiel Shah at JPMorgan. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland1: Great. Thanks for the conference call. Just a question around sentiment again. We’ve spoken a lot around the potential balance sheet impact and maybe the reduced demand for lending for either corporates or I mean, the mortgage area seems to be holding up strong. But can I invite you to speak around the other income line and how you think that would be impacted in an environment where sentiment remains a little low?

I know wealth has held up quite strong, but are there other areas within other income that are a bit more sentiment geared rather than maybe market geared?

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: That’s a strong strong performance, in the first quarter on business income, Sheila. That’s the first first point. And and the fundamentals here, from a retail fee perspective, and with a growing customer base, customer acquisitions, that continues to offer, growth in in in business income. And most definitely, wealth and insurance. And, of course, we have seen, given the market volatility in the first quarter, period, that’s had an impact from market valuations.

But, actually, I’m very confident by the fact that that’s been offset by net inflows and therefore confidence on wealth and insurance fee income. I would have said before, I expect that to grow faster than the economy. We gave a guidance of I think we’re in about seven, eight percent overall. So, again, sitting here today, feel very good about those two parts of our business to support, business income.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Dennis Mcgoldrick at Goodbody. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland2: Good morning, Myles and Mark, and thank you for taking my questions. Two, please, if I may. Firstly, just on the corporate deposits. So they came down by about GBP 300,000,000 in the quarter. Just wondering, is this linked to the exiting of the noncore corporate and commercial portfolio?

Or is there something else you’re seeing there? And then secondly, just to quickly clarify a previous point on the PMA. So 57,000,000, all of which is related to CRE, but would you expect to be incorporated into the models? Is it later this year? Just if you could clarify that point for me, please.

Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Great. Thanks for that. Yeah.

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: I’ll take those. I mean, the corporate deposit, actually, Dennis, we spoke last year. Had a very strong deposit performance, particularly in q four last year in corporate. Was quite a bit of not, and we flagged at the time in terms of our ranking for this year as a potential for new. No surprises.

Not linked to the it’s sort of run down raises of the corporate g b book. So just I would say just b a u customer behavior there. And the PMA’s fifty seven million predominantly relates to to COB and Dennis. My expectation right now is that they get incorporated into models by by the end of the year.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland2: Great. Thank you very much.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Next comes

Conference Operator: from Seamus Murphy at Carrigale. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland0: Hi. Yeah. Sorry. Can I just ask about just a follow on on deposits? So so, like, when we look across Europe, obviously, deposit growth has been really, really strong in a lot of regions like Portugal, plus seven, Austria, you know, Germany picking up basically.

But it’s just kind of unusual about AI being yourselves are seeing limited deposit growth or zero deposit growth. So can you just talk about that in the context of what’s actually going on, just in terms of, because if you are so bullish on loan growth or the pickup in loans, then the fact deposits are lagging so much just seems a bit of a surprise. So just in terms of what’s actually happening in the deposit market in Ireland, please.

Mark, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland: Yeah. James. Yeah. Good morning, James. I don’t mean something unusual, and you you know that, you know, quarter to quarter deposits can can be can be quite volatile, particularly in the NFC space if you look at a different system, though.

Overall, I think if you look over the last number of years, it is difficult to absolutely try and make because we have a lot of moving parts in terms of COVID, in terms of player sales in the market, etcetera. But but but it’s seasonally q one to be typically tends to be the weakest work. So, actually, if we look at our plans for the year and how things have actually played out in q one, I’d say we’re in line at least in line, if not a little bit ahead, in terms of how the cost was performed, in q one.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland0: Okay. Thank you.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Thanks for that, Travis.

Conference Operator: Just a reminder that if you do have a question, we ask that you please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. And if you want to withdraw your question, please lower your hand using the raise hand function. We will wait a moment to check for any more questions. As we have no more raised hands at this time, this concludes the q and a session, and I will hand back to management for closing remarks.

Miles O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Ireland: Great. Thank you very much for that. And just to say to everyone on the line, thank you very much for taking the time to be with us this morning. I know it’s a it’s a busy, particularly busy week in, with various banks coming out across the system, so thank you for your time. And, of course, the investor relations team, and indeed, Mark and I are available if you have any, follow-up questions.

So thank you very much, and have a very good day. Thank you.

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