Govt to draft law to dissolve NAMA and wind up IBRC

The Government has given the go-ahead for the drafting of legislation to complete the dissolution of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and the winding up of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC).

When enacted, the laws will facilitate the planned ending of the liquidation of IBRC by the end of this year and the dissolution of NAMA by the end of next year.

Both entities are likely to have some residual activity though once their main work has finished and so the new law will allow for the establishment of a resolution unit in the National Treasury Management Agency.

Any remaining residual activity at IBRC will be transferred to NAMA and when it is dissolved next year the remaining activities will move to the resolution unit in the NTMA.

IBRC was the name given to the vehicle set up over a decade ago for the liquidation of the failed former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society.

Around €1.7bn has been paid by IBRC to State agencies through the unsecured dividend payment process.

In December of last year, €35m was paid to the State in the first surplus transfer.

“The Special Liquidation of the IBRC commenced over 10 years ago, with a loan portfolio of par value of €21bn, consisting of over 15,000 borrower groups and supported by collateral based in 22 jurisdictions worldwide,” said Minister for Finance, Jack Chambers.

“I want to take this opportunity to formally acknowledge the exceptional progress made by the Special Liquidators of the IBRC in maximising the return on IBRC’S portfolio, with €35 million having been returned to the Exchequer in December 2023 and further realisations to come.”

“At the time of the publication of the Tenth progress update report in 2023, the remaining loan book had a par value of €3.6bn.”

NAMA was a State controlled bad bank, set up in 2009 to relieve the main Irish banks of their bad debts during the financial crisis.

By the time it is dissolved at the end of next year, it is expected to have generated a lifetime return of at least €5.2bn to the exchequer, €4.25bn of which has already been paid over.

“NAMA inherited a multi-jurisdictional loan book with a par value of €74bn comprising 60,000 properties and 5,000 individual borrowers,” Mr Chambers said.

“It fully repaid all €32bn in debt issued to acquire loans and has been fully self-financing throughout its lifetime.”

“It has made an important social and economic contribution to the development of the State, funding and delivering over 37,000 new homes to date and delivering over 3,000 social housing homes, as well as driving the regeneration of the Dublin Docklands area.”

Chambers Ireland welcomed the news.

“This approval brings to an end an extraordinarily difficult time in our country’s economic and social history,” said Ian Talbot, Chambers Ireland CEO.

“From the dark days of 2009 when NAMA was established, few would have predicted the buoyant state of the Irish economy in 2024.”

“In a global financial crisis of a scale unseen since the Great Crash of 1929 and subsequent recession, coupled with a lack of precedents on the appropriate actions to take, measures undertaken by Government at that time and subsequently have in the long term proven to be extremely successful.”