Bank of Ireland has reported an underlying pre-tax loss of 569 million euro (£469 million) for last year, down from almost 1.5 billion euro (£1.2 billion) in the previous year.

The bank said it recorded an operating profit for the year of more than 1 billion euro (£824 million) before impairment charges on loans of 1.6 billion euro (£1.3 billion) were taken into account.

Its annual report said the level of defaulted loans has fallen 6% since June 2013.

Bank of Ireland was bailed out by the Irish Government from 2009-2011 with about 4.8 billion euro (£4 billion) and the state holds 14% of the bank's stock.