The European Commission has approved the restructuring plan for Bank Of Ireland under EU State aid rules.
As part of the conditions attached to its taxpayer-funded bailout the Bank is required to sell certain businesses including its New Ireland Assurance and ICS Building Society divisions.
Newstalk business editor Conor Brophy says it is the price the bank has to pay for receiving €3.5 billion from Irish taxpayers.
“The EU as we know has the final say in whether any institution cross Europe is allowed to take cash from a government – from taxpayers – in order to keep its operations going” he said.
“In this case, the European Union is saying that the price of that is that Bank of Ireland has to sell a number of subsidiaries”.
” Bank of Ireland had previously announced that it would be doing that in April and this is the European Union formally signing off now on that State aid and on the bank’s new restructuring plan” he added.
