The National Asset Management Agency (Nama), which was originally established to handle precarious commercial property loans from Irish banks back in 2009, has raised its expected lifetime contribution to the Exchequer. This sum is now anticipated to be €5.2 billion, a surge of €300 million from previous forecasts. Apart from a predicted lifetime surplus of €4.8 billion, this figure takes into consideration about €400 million of corporation tax that has already been paid.
Nama, also referred to as the “bad bank”, has an impressive record of profitability for the past 13 years. This streak continued last year when it recorded a profit of €68 million. However, this was a decrease from the €81 million profit seen in 2023, symbolising a steady shrinkage of the Nama loan portfolio. This portfolio was valued at €449 million at the end of 2023, virtually 1% of the €32 billion shelled out by Nama to procure the loans initially.
Over the previous ten years, Nama has repeatedly revised its lifetime surplus forecast upwardly, far from its initial prediction that it would merely make sufficient money to repay its senior debt. In the coming year, Nama is expected to assume control of the last assets of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) in 2025, before winding down by the year’s finale. Since 2013, the IBRC has been undergoing liquidation, holding the remnants of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.
Recently, Finance Minister Michael McGrath declared that any residual Nama assets or activities will be assigned to a newly formed Resolution Unit within the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) by the end of 2025.