BANK of Scotland Ireland (BOSI) received a €3.55bn capital injection from its UK parent company, Lloyds Banking Group, just days before the lender was shut down at the end of December.

The latest bailout of BOSI brings to €8bn the total amount of capital it has received to cover the huge losses it is suffering on its development property loan book. The €8bn is equivalent to more than a third of the cash UK taxpayers' pumped into Lloyds since 2008 when it merged with Halifax Bank of Scotland and inherited the BOSI division.

Separately, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) injected a further €290m into its Ulster Bank division late last year, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

Lloyds called time on BOSI in August last year and the bank ceased to exist on December 31. The bank's remaining €32bn of loans are being managed by a new company called Certus, which is controlled by former senior BOSI executives, including chief executive Joe Higgins.

BOSI shut its retail banking arm Halifax early last year with the loss of 750 jobs. Certus employs the remaining 800 BOSI workforce and is currently recruiting more staff.

"Lloyds Banking Group provided capital and funding support to BOSI as was required up to 31 December 2010, when the assets and liabilities of BOSI were merged with Bank of Scotland," the bank said in a statement.

The crippling losses suffered by BOSI have derailed the recovery at Lloyds, which is 41%-owned by British taxpayers. The bank said in late December that its profits would be much lower as a result of higher loan-loss provisions at BOSI. Lloyds said it was setting aside £4.3bn (€5.1bn) to cover losses on loans here. Around 90% of BOSI's property development loans are impaired.

Lloyds said last month that it was concerned that any recovery in Ireland "may take longer to achieve, and that asset prices will remain depressed for longer, than previously anticipated". It will disclose its full Irish losses next month when it publishes annual reports.

The December capital infusion means BOSI has now received more in aid than AIB, despite having a loan book a quarter of the size of AIB's.

Meanwhile, the additional capital provided by RBS to Ulster Bank brings the total amount it has needed to offset loan losses to €2.6bn. Ulster Bank's most toxic loans are insured by the British government's Asset Protection Scheme. RBS is 83%-owned by British taxpayers after it received tens of billions in state aid to prevent it going under.