Fergus Murphy: 'capital advantage'

The government will not have to pump as much money into EBS as anticipated once its dealings with Nama are complete, according to chief executive Fergus Murphy.

Speaking after the EBS AGM, Murphy said he anticipated the recapitalisation necessary will be around €300m. It had been thought recapitalising the building society, which lost €38.2m in 2008, would cost up to €400m.

"There is a capital advantage to taking highly risky assets off your balance sheet and we would be taking bonds issued by Nama, so we wouldn't need as much capital as the haircut that we will have to take but we will probably need somewhere in the region of €300m," said Murphy.