Ireland’s “bad bank” scheme faces further delays as European Union approval is not expected until the end of February at the earliest, the Sunday Business Post newspaper reported, citing unnamed European Commission sources.
An Irish finance ministry spokesman said he had no comment on the report.
Earlier this month, Irish government officials said they were confident the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) would have by February the approval needed to allow it to buy risky property loans with a combined book value of 80 billion euro (69 billion pounds) between February and the third quarter.
Originally, the aim was for NAMA to buy loans totalling 77 billion euros from December to mid-2010.
A major deadline for NAMA is March 30, the last day of the Bank of Ireland’s financial year.
The Irish business newspaper said government sources were still confident the bad bank process would be under way by then.
