Bank of Ireland increased the amount set aside to deal with bad loans in the year to March 31 more than six-fold, reflecting the deteriorating property market in Ireland and the UK.

After loan impairments of €1.4bn (£1.2bn), compared with €227m last year, the bank reported a pre-tax loss of €7m against profits last year of €1.9bn.

Investors in BoI, as with many Irish financial institutions, have been hard hit by the property crash, with the shares losing more than 90% of their value in the past year.

Financial Times