Ireland's 'bad bank' buys loans from Anglo Irish

DUBLIN, May 10 (Reuters) - Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has completed the transfer of the first tranche of loans from nationalised Anglo Irish Bank at a discount of 55 percent, NAMA said on Monday.

The transfer completes the first batch of loans bought from the five participating institutions, which also include Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, Irish Nationwide Building Society and EBS Building Society.

The overall discount for the first tranche, which was nominally worth 15.3 billion euros ($20.53 billion), came in 50 percent, said NAMA, which is widely referred to as a 'bad bank'.

(Reporting by Andras Gergely) ($1=.7453 Euro) Keywords: IRELAND BANKS/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.