Ireland's NAMA on course to redeem all senior debt this year

Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the country's state-owned "bad bank", said on Thursday it remains on course to redeem all senior debt by the end of 2017, a year ahead of schedule.

In its end-year summary of progress made in 2016, NAMA said it redeemed 5.5 billion euros (5.83 billion U.S. dollars)of senior debt last year.

This brings to 27.6 billion euros the amount of senior debt redeemed since 2010, representing 91 percent of the 30.2 billion euros of senior debt originally issued in 2010 and 2011 to acquire bank loans, and leaves 2.59 billion euros outstanding by the end of last year, less than 9 percent of its original level, according to the agency.

NAMA issued 30.2 billion euros of senior bonds to rid Irish banks of 74 billion euros worth of risky property loans following the country's financial crisis.

In 2014, the agency set a target of redeeming 80 percent or 24 billion euros of its senior debt by the end of 2016. That has now been exceeded by 3.6 billion euros.

Meanwhile, NAMA generated 5.4 billion euros in cash in 2016, and made 5.1 billion euros in loan and assets sales last year, it said.

NAMA was set up in 2009 as one of a number of initiatives taken by the Irish government to address the serious crisis in Irish banking which had become increasingly evident over the course of 2008 and early 2009. (1 euro = 1.06 U.S. dollars) Endit