The Government's plan to remove up to €90bn of property-related loans from bank balance sheets via Nama has been given measured support by the influential global ratings agency, Standard & Poor's (S&P), although the agency is still awaiting the fine detail of the plan.

The agency's London-based banking analyst, Giles Edwards, told the Sunday Tribune that Nama could be a major boost for the banking system.

"We think the plan could achieve the government's stated objectives of putting the banks on a stronger footing, restoring investor confidence in them, and improving both their liquidity and their capacity to lend to creditworthy Irish borrowers," said Edwards.

The government has found it hard to counter criticism of Nama among leading economists and accountants, many of whom support full-scale nationalisation of the banks. Fine Gael meanwhile has drawn up a plan that could result in widespread losses for bank bondholders.

S&P said while nationalisation was a "more straightforward approach", it had significant drawbacks. The agency said moving good loans and bad loans into Nama did offer additional advantages.