Central Bank publishes Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement 2025

Central Bank of Ireland has today (Friday 5 June 2026) published its Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement for 2025 (PDF 3.9MB).

Speaking on publication of the report, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said: “2025 was a year of significant uncertainty and adjustment.

“Inflation across advanced economies continued to moderate from the highs experienced in previous years. In the euro area, we kept interest rates at levels necessary to ensure that inflation returns sustainably to our 2% target even as geopolitical tensions, technological change and the climate transition continued to reshape the landscape of our economies and financial systems. The uncertainty continues even now, and my colleagues and I will continue to act in line with our mandate, remaining data-dependent.

“The Irish economy demonstrated resilience, supported by strong employment and investment. We continued to face the challenges of infrastructure constraints and the uncertain external environment which so affects us as a small open economy with a large, internationally-connected financial sector. We must continue to strengthen Ireland’s resilience to global shocks – while 2025’s disinflationary process was driven primarily by the continued unwinding of energy price shocks, the supply shock from the war in Iran is already showing up in higher energy commodity prices, passing quickly into consumer and business energy costs.”

Reflecting on the Central Bank’s achievements over the last year, Governor Makhlouf said: “During 2025, the modernised Consumer Protection Code came into effect, following a comprehensive review of the existing framework to stay abreast of the way financial services are provided in a digital world. The revisions enhance the areas of informing effectively, protecting consumers in vulnerable circumstances, mortgage switching, insurance auto-renewals, frauds and scams, and the provision of unregulated products and services by regulated firms.  

“We continued to develop our Innovation Sandbox programme with a call-out for projects on the theme of innovation in payments, strengthening engagement with innovators in this area and enriching our insight into emerging technologies and business models in the Irish financial system. The 2025 theme was combatting financial crime and we brought together seven projects across innovation areas such as information sharing, identity verification and fraud prevention.

“In 2025, we implemented our new supervisory approach aimed at delivering on four critical and overarching safeguarding outcomes: the protection of consumer and investor interests; the integrity of the financial system; the safety and soundness of firms; and financial stability. We continue to signal our priorities and methodologies through the annual Regulatory & Supervisory Outlook Report (PDF 1.85MB), and in December, we published our ‘Regulating & Supervising well – a more effective and efficient framework’ report (PDF 440.55KB) which outlines our approach and experience to date in reducing complexity and improving clarity while maintaining resilience and important protections in the system.

“At an organisational level, our new framework created multi-disciplinary teams working together within and across sectors to deliver our supervisory priorities in a more effective way.

“We progressed implementation of new EU regulatory regimes such as the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, the Digital Operational Resilience Act, and the EU AI Act, applying its responsible AI governance model to the deployment of our own internal AI tool, BankChat, and AI-enhanced business intelligence.

“At the beginning of 2025, we set up a dedicated team to investigate and prosecute offences under financial services legislation. We became a Trusted Flagger and began our efforts to have illegal online content removed by certain large technology firms and ran an advertising campaign to raise awareness about scams and empower people to avoid them.

“We also issued two commemorative coins, one to mark Daniel O’Connell’s 250th birthday, and the other the achievements of George Bernard Shaw on the 100-year anniversary of his becoming a Nobel laureate.

“Reflecting our commitment to the continued availability of cash, we commenced our responsibilities under the Finance (Provision of Access to Cash Infrastructure) Act 2025, processing the registrations of cash-in-transit companies and ATM Deployers operating in the State, designating entities responsible for compliance with the Act, and launching two public consultations (one on Local Deficiency and another on Requirements for ATM Operators).

“We responded to the Government’s 2025 insurance reform action plan, delivering on greater market transparency to deliver a fairer and more affordable insurance market with faster releases from the National Claims Information Database.

“Our multifaceted and demanding work is only made possible by the people who work here, whose dedication and professionalism are commendable in rising to the challenge. Our values – integrity and care, courage and humility, teamwork and excellence – guide all of us. Our diversity and inclusiveness strengthen us, and on behalf of myself and the Commission, we thank them for their dedication and commitment to the public interest and the welfare of the people as a whole.”

ENDS

Further Information

Gheorghe Rusu | 086 102 9986 | [email protected]

Media Relations Office | [email protected]

Notes to Editor

Governor Makhlouf has written a blog on the Annual Report, containing an overview of the economic outlook, a summary of the Central Bank’s achievements and an update on our financial position at the end of last year.