Bank of Ireland may participate in ECB bond buying -CEO

DUBLIN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Bank of Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) may "take some advantage" of the European Central Bank's new bond buying programme when it begins next month, chief executive Richie Boucher said on Friday.

Weeks before the ECB launches its programme to buy about 1 trillion euros of euro zone government bonds, many banks, pension funds and insurers across the continent are hoarding them for regulatory or accounting reasons.

"We might take some advantage, but I don't think it is going to be a material feature of what will happen. We might use it for repo, rather than outright sale," Boucher told Reuters in a telephone interview after the bank posted a 921 million euro ($1.03 billion) full year profit. ($1 = 0.8919 euros) (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by David Clarke)