STATE-OWNED LENDERS Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide have spent more than twice as much as their nearest rival on repossessing borrowers’ homes over the last two years.

Anglo and INBS – which were merged this year into the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation – paid out almost €4.2million in legal fees for house repossession cases between 2009 and the present.

The next highest spender, AIB, spent just over €2million, according to the figures released by the Department of Finance in response to a parliamentary question. AIB’s spending was almost four times that of Bank of Ireland, which paid around €535,000.

Bank of Ireland is the sole remaining major Irish bank that is not effectively nationalised.

The figures show that the four State-guaranteed lenders – the last being Irish Life & Permanent – spent almost €7million on legal fees for repossessions over the last two years.

Spending by Anglo and INBS peaked last year, when the two lenders spent more than €1.6million on legal fees to repossess borrowers’ properties. In 2009 the figure was close to €1.4million, while so far this year almost €1.2million has been spent.

Read more: IMF was in favour of Government burning senior bondholders>