The new Nama-like asset management company created to buy troubled loan portfolios from foreign-owned banks in Ireland has already lined up a number of live transactions which it is ready to execute in the coming months, and could be operational before the state agency, according to market sources.

Asset Resolution Corporation (ARC), fronted by former Bank of Scotland Ireland (BOSI) chief executive Mark Duffy and ex-PWC partner Kevin Warren, is understood to have secured substantial backing on a British roadshow last week and is prepared to start acquiring some of the €60bn in property loans given out by foreign banks in Ireland.

ARC plans to use this backing, plus leverage supplied by the banks themselves, to buy entire portfolios of loans from institutions that want to exit Ireland or shrink their balance sheets, sources said.

In this way it will work much like Barclays' controversial Protium vehicle, which uses loans from Barclays to buy and 'cleanse' the bank's own bad assets, effectively turning them from non-performing assets into performing loans.

ARC is believed to be targeting all the foreign-owned banks in Ireland, including Duffy's old employer, BOSI, which has been considering closing its retail bank, Halifax, as part of a rationalisation programme begun after the merger of its parent HBOS with Lloyds in September 2008. ACC Bank, which has indicated it will be exiting the Irish market, is another obvious target.

ARC will not be disclosing the terms of its deals, but it is believed to be pitching at a significant discount to Nama, which is applying an average haircut of 30% across the portfolio of loans it will be acquiring from five of the seven Irish covered institutions.