A "new" Anglo Irish Bank will emerge next year, cleansed of toxic property loans and open for business, chief executive Mike Aynsley said.

Aynsley said the "old Anglo" will have its banking licence revoked and be turned into an asset management company that will run down its remaining bad loans. A new bank with a new name will be up and running next January, he said. The bank will focus on lending to small business customers but will retain some property exposure.

"It's an organisation that has experience in SME and general corporate lending. The issue is the core of activity has been around commercial property and that will be important to the new bank and Ireland," Aynsley said in an interview with the Sunday Tribune. "We'll be shifting the emphasis into a broader range of activities: corporate finance, [loan] syndication and securitisation. We'll be using many of the skills brought in to the organisation to build a stronger position in the debt capital markets."

About half of Anglo's €72bn loan book is heading for the National Asset Management Agency. Of the remaining loans, about €12bn will go into rundown in the asset management company, with the rest heading for "new Anglo" along with its deposit book of €27.2bn.

The CEO was quiet on whether Anglo will form part of the long-talked-about third force in Irish banking. If anything, it appears the third force now seems to be off the agenda with no mention of the project in finance minister Brian Lenihan's speech to the Dáil last week. Some analysts believe a combination of Anglo, Permanent TSB and Irish Nationwide and EBS building societies would provide a strong competitor to AIB and Bank of Ireland. However, Irish Nationwide has been effectively nationalised and EBS is in talks with a private investor about its recapitalisation.

Aynsley said the proposals for the "new Anglo" require the approval of the European Commission, which must sign off on the bank's massive recapitalisation. The revised business plan, to take into account the €18.3bn Anglo is getting from the government, will be submitted in May.