Lloyds sells Irish mortgage business to Barclays for £4 billion

Lloyds Banking Group has sold its Irish residential mortgage portfolio to Barclays for around 4 billion pounds in cash, as part of a plan to focus on its core British market.

The deal was the last action Lloyds needed to take to complete its exit from the Irish market, following its closure of its retail banking operation there in 2010.

Lloyds is left only with around 4 billion pounds worth of additional Irish mortgages that it will allow to expire over time.

Lloyds will now be able to focus on tackling an increasing threat to its dominant position in the British markets from new entrants eager to cut prices to win business.

Of the assets sold on Friday, 300 million pounds worth are impaired — meaning borrowers are struggling to pay them. They generated a pretax loss of around 40 million pounds last year, Lloyds said in a statement.

A year to the day after its return to private ownership following the British government’s last sale of its stake in Lloyds, Britain’s biggest lender faces a battle to maintain its grip on the mortgage market.