<div><p>Ireland's top two banks hope to get about 28.2 billion euros (42.5 billion dollars) in return for soured property loans which will be transferred to a "bad bank" scheme, they said in statements on Monday.</p><p>Allied Irish Bank (AIB) said it hoped to get 17 billion euros and Bank of Ireland (BofI) said it could receive 11.2 billion euros if a 30 percent discount is applied to the loans.</p><p>Ireland's banks have been ravaged by the global financial crisis, a domestic property market meltdown and a deep recession.</p><p>The Irish state is setting up a "bad bank", the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA), to buy toxic bank property loans with a total book value of 77 billion euros which soured in the country's recession.</p><p>NAMA, which has been approved by both houses of parliament and signed into law by President Mary McAleese, will use taxpayers' money to buy the loans at a discount.</p><p>BofI said it would be recommending participation in NAMA to shareholders at a meeting in January.</p><p>It said the "precise quantum of the assets" to transfer to NAMA and the terms of their transfer have yet to be established and a loan-by-loan exercise will be involved.</p><p>AIB, which is planning an extraordinary general meeting next month, said guidance from Finance Minister Brian Lenihan had estimated a discount on loans of 30 percent "although there can be no assurance that this will be the case"</p><p>The lender said there was no reason to believe that the average discount applicable to AIB's NAMA Assets "will fall significantly outside of this guidance".</p><p>NAMA will buy loans with a book value of 77 billion euros from Irish lenders. It will pay about 54 billion euros for the assets.</p><p>In September Lenihan said that Irish property prices had plunged by 50 percent.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=64480955&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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