While the mortgage-focused Permanent TSB and KBC Bank Ireland scraped out small profits for the quarter as they held off taking large Covid-19 provisions, they warned that charges will rise as the year progresses. “Irish banks are more reliant on activity-based fees than banks across Europe,” said Diarmaid Sheridan, an analyst with stockbrokers Davy. “Areas such as wealth management are far less important [for Irish banks]. “The SME sphere, that’s where the battle really has to be won to get economic activity started,” said KBC Bank Ireland chief executive Peter Roebben. Meanwhile, regulators will be pressing banks to use the breathing space from the Covid-19 loan payment breaks to work with customers with longer-term problems.

Source: The Irish Times May 15, 2020 03:00 UTC