The scale of the Central Bank’s pandemic-related bond-buying last year has made it – on a technical basis – the largest financial institution in the State. The Central Bank’s annual report shows its total balance sheet assets rose by €25.1 billion, or 22 per cent, to €141.5 billion in 2020. This was driven in the main by the increased accumulation of Irish Government debt as part of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) massive €1.3 trillion pandemic emergency relief programme. The Central Bank’s holdings for 2020 eclipsed the assets held by UK bank Barclays and Bank of Ireland, traditionally the two largest financial institutions in the Republic. The Central Bank’s report showed its profit for 2020 fell by 67 per cent, which had a knock on impact on the surplus it paid to the exchequer.

Source: The Irish Times June 02, 2021 14:29 UTC