The company that contains the remains of Ulster Bank paid a €165 million dividend to its British parent, NatWest, earlier this year, bringing the total recovered from the former lender’s bailout of its Irish unit to €5.25 billion. The disclosure was contained in the latest annual financial statement of the company, Ulydien, filed in recent days with the Companies Registration Office (CRO). Deducting the dividend from Ulydien’s net assets, as of the end of December, the net position of the balance sheet has subsequently fallen below €150 million – offering limited scope for NatWest to recoup much more cash from the Irish company as it heads towards wind-up. This suggests that NatWest, formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), is on track to recover less than a third of Ulster Bank’s £15 billion (€17.3 billion) parental rescue during the financial crisis. By contrast, Irish taxpayers are set to end up recouping €30.7 billion from the State’s three surviving banks – on a cash-in, cash-out basis – following their combined €29.3 billion in bailouts. This assumes that the recently agreed sale of 57.5 per cent Government-owned PTSB goes through on current terms. The taxpayer recovery has been significantly boosted by a surge in Irish bank valuations since Ulster Bank and KBC Bank Ireland announced five years ago that they were winding down their business in the Republic. The remaining lenders have since taken over most of the exiting banks’ loans and customers – and enjoyed the benefits of a spike in interest rates globally. Ulster Bank was renamed Ulydien last June as the bank handed back its licence to the Central Bank after 165 years operating in what is now the Republic. It had paid €3.5 billion of dividends to its parent between 2016 and 2019, following up with a further €1.1 billion in 2023 and €485 million in 2024. Ulster Bank’s rescue bill equated to a third of the total UK government’s £45 billion 2008 bailout of RBS. UK chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves sold that state’s remaining shares in NatWest last year, delivering a total recovery of £35 billion. The £10 billion gap almost equates to the expected final shortfall on Ulster Bank. Ulydien reported a €53 million net loss in 2025, down from a €66 million shortfall for the previous year. Total staff numbers fell to 35 as of December from 100 a year earlier. It had about 2,800 employees in February 2021, when the decision was taken to quit the market. It had total assets of €361 million in December, mainly comprising amounts due from other companies within the NatWest group. Net assets amounted to €313 million. Ulydien tapped €56 million from provisions for customer remediation for “legacy issues” in 2025, known to include refunds of overcharged interest on mortgages. This has left a pot of €7 million that the company expects to be largely utilised this year. The company is currently led by managing director Philip Duff. Former chief executive Jane Howard, who had led Ulster Bank from 2018, returned to the UK last July to become chief executive of NatWest’s RBS International division.