THE AIB group has reported a sharp drop in new lending in Northern Ireland, just months after slashing its branch portfolio in half.
In its half-year results for 2022, the Irish lender said its Northern Ireland retail and business banking operation recorded around £100 million of new lending in the six months to June 2022.
That was 69 per cent down on the same period in 2021.
It comes one year after the banking group announced plans to slash its Northern Ireland branch portfolio in half, closing eight in total during November 2021.
The move left AIB with just seven branches in the north.
The AIB Group as a whole recorded a 74 per cent surge in pre-tax profits to €477 million (£401m) for the first six months of 2022.
The Irish lender said it clawed back provisions of €309m (£260m) set aside in anticipation of ‘bad loans’ during the Covid-19 pandemic.
New lending increased by 20 per cent to €5.4 billion (£4.54bn) for the six months to June 2022.
Total operating income for AIB UK, which includes its Northern Ireland retail and business banking operation, rose 15 per cent to £130 million in the first half of 2022.
Meanwhile, AIB chief executive Colin Hunt admitted on Friday that the bank "got it wrong" when it announced that it was to turn 70 of its 170 branches across the border into cashless outlets, last week.
"We got it wrong," the bank boss told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
"The lesson for us from this is that we moved far too far, far too fast."
