Irish 'bad bank' NAMA raises forecast surplus to 4.5 billion euros

Ireland's state-run "bad bank" on Thursday raised the forecast surplus it expects to return to the state to 4.5 billion euros from 4.25 billion and said it hopes that figure will be higher again by the time it winds down by 2025. Set up in 2009, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) used 32 billion euros of debt to rid lenders of 74 billion euros worth of risky property loans following a banking collapse. The government in turn had to then pour tens of billions of euros more into its ailing banks, some of which collapsed.