DUBLIN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the country's state-owned "bad bank", redeemed 952 million euros of senior notes on Wednesday, the second redemption in 2017.
This brought to 29.7 billion euros (61.7 billion U.S. dollars) the amount of senior debt redeemed to date, representing over 98 percent of the 30.2 billion euros of senior debt originally issued in 2010 and 2011 to acquire bank loans.
Wednesday's redemption means NAMA's senior debt now stands at 500 million euros, less than 2 percent of its original level.
On Feb. 8, NAMA redeemed 1.09 billion euros of senior notes, its first redemption in 2017.
NAMA CEO Brendan McDonagh said NAMA is close to achieving, three years ahead of schedule, its primary commercial objective of redeeming its senior debt.
"We remain on course to redeem the remaining 500 million euros of NAMA senior debt later this year," he said.
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.
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.
