The lender said that its new mortgage lending jumped by 30% versus 13% growth in the overall market
Permanent tsb (PTSB) in the first quarter expanded its share of Ireland’s fast growing mortgage market to 17.9% from 15.3% in the previous quarter as it looks to take advantage of rivals announcing plans to leave the market.
The 75% state-owned lender said on Wednesday that its new mortgage lending jumped by 30% versus 13% growth in the overall market while it raised capital levels and kept non-performing loans in line with the end of last year.
Ireland’s market is set to shrink to just three retail banks after NatWest announced in February that it would wind down its Ulster Bank unit and Belgium’s KBC said last month it was exploring the sale of the bulk of its Irish assets.
Each bank had a share of the mortgage market just below PTSB’s at the end of last year and their exit will leave the mortgage lender competing with the dominant Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks.
PTSB is also in early talks with NatWest to purchase mortgage and small- and medium-size business loans, branches and customer deposits and said on Wednesday that those discussions continue.
It also said all the loan breaks it offered to customers at the start of the pandemic had expired with 5% of those – accounting for around 100 million euros in loans – requiring further forbearance measures.
It anticipated that a further 4% would likely require additional help.
New lending continues to beat expectations, capital is trending well ahead of forecast and asset quality remains robust – all pointing to a strong start to 2021, with good momentum across the business, Davy Stockbrokers analyst Diarmaid Sheridan wrote in a note.
Sheridan stated that new lending opportunities are increasing for PTSB, arising from the exits of Ulster Bank and KBC – and setting aside the potential acquisition from Ulster Bank – and therefore further upside potential exists.