OREANDA-NEWS. The Central Bank of Ireland today publishes its 2015 Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement for financial regulation.

The Central Bank generated a profit of €2.24bn for 2015, a further increase on last year’s figure. From this, €1.79bn has been transferred to the exchequer.

Launching the report in his first press conference in the role, Governor Lane highlighted the favourable outlook for the domestic economy, however he stressed that discipline in addressing the remaining vulnerabilities and the longer term.

Commenting on the euro area, he said ‘tentative signs of recovery in the euro area are also visible, supported by an accommodative monetary policy stance that has included the use of both standard and non-standard measures. The announcement by the Governing Council ECB in March of further accommodative measures underscores our intention to use exceptional monetary policy instruments in support of the   price stability mandate.’

Commenting on the mortgage rules framework introduced in 2015, he confirmed that while the general framework is intended to be a permanent feature he said that any changes will require a high evidence threshold and that the calibration of these rules can be tightened, loosened or left unchanged’ . He also announced that as part of its review of the mortgage lending rules, the Bank will invite written public submissions that provide evidence-based analyses of the impact of the rules.  Details on this process will be provided by the Central Bank in advance of the submission period.