Ireland's financial sector has been short on good news stories, so the sale of Bank of Ireland's asset management unit – plagued for several years by poor investment performance and mandate losses – to State Street Global Advisors will hopefully make for a happy ending to a long and turbulent tale.

State Street is paying €57m for the Irish firm, which manages €26bn in total, implying a valuation of 0.22% of assets under management. That is uncommonly cheap for funds acquisitions.