Anglo Irish Bank, AIB and Bank of Ireland all derive large portions of their profit from the UK and chancellor Gordon Brown's plan to reduce corporation tax there from 30% to 28% will cut a sizeable chunk from their tax bills.

Anglo stands to gain the most, since 30% of its profits come from the UK. Taking the most recent financial year as a proxy, the difference to the bank's after-tax profit would be more than 5m.

Based on its 2006 results, AIB stands to take an extra 7.6m out of the British market, which accounts for 25% of its profits.

Bank of Ireland is not far behind, with 22% of its profit generation coming from its UK operations. BoI could expect a 7.8m bump in after-tax profits from the change.

With double-digit annual growth in UK business for all three banks, the actual numbers are likely to be much higher.

Other Irish companies in the financial sector with UK operations . . . such as IFG and Irish Life and Permanent . . . will also benefit from the changes.

The tax reduction is scheduled to take effect in April 2008.