It will be at least a month before Bank of Ireland can approach investors with a capital-raising proposition, according to sources. Institutions do not expect the bank to come to the market until it has completed audited accounts for 2010.

The timeframe will run the bank close to its end-February deadline to meet new minimum capital requirements set by the Central Bank under the direction of the European Commission and IMF. Bank of Ireland has to add €2.2bn to its reserves to reach the new 12% core capital threshold.

A successful debt exchange last month netted the bank €700m. It is understood the bank intends to raise another €200m from liability management and more than €1bn from investors.

The bank has not yet drawn up a prospectus for a rights issue, despite lodging a broad capital plan with the Department of Finance last month, a spokeswoman confirmed.

The NTMA, which has ultimate responsibility for bank restructuring, said the bank had "given thoughts" on recapitalisation to treasury officials, but not specific plans.

Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher is trying to keep the bank from falling into state hands, but most market sources believe the government will end up owning most of its share capital.

Meanwhile, the bank remains under pressure to sell off blocks of assets to achieve rapid deleveraging targets set by the Commission, the ECB and the IMF, according to the NTMA.

NTMA head of banking Michael Torpey said fire sales would "impose an unreasonable burden on the taxpayer" and that it would be better to warehouse assets to enable an orderly deleveraging over a period of years.