Asset Resolution Corporation (ARC), the Nama-style distressed debt buyer launched last week by former Bank of Scotland Ireland (BOSI) chief Mark Duffy and property fund manager Kevin Warren, has already rebuffed a number of liquidators and non-bank financial companies looking to execute individual transactions, Duffy has told the Sunday Tribune.

Duffy said he and Warren had turned down several "tempting" approaches in the past few days in favour of sticking to the original plan to complete wholesale purchases of large loan portfolios using finance provided by the banks themselves to supplement their equity backing.

ARC is hoping to buy bulk impaired commercial property loans from foreign-owned banks in Ireland and manage them on a restructured basis in order to profit both from the income they produce and capital upside if the property market turns. The directors claim to have substantial backing for a "scale play" from long-term investors in the UK, including pension funds, for a seven- to 10 year horizon.

It is understood ARC will not be targeting Duffy's old bank, BOSI, or Ulster Bank in the short or medium term, as their UK parents, Lloyds and RBS, have yet to finalise their level of involvement in the British government's asset protection scheme, which could see some of their Irish assets coming under the purview of the British Treasury.