Bank of Ireland has entered into a conditional agreement to purchase MoneyeXtra.com for £26m, subject to approval from MoneyeXtra shareholders. The Bank of Ireland said in a statement: 'The proposed acquisition supports Bank of Ireland's strategy of building Bristol & West's presence in selected profitable market segments, including specialist lending markets and personal savings and investments, as well as expanding into new profitable market segments to include advice.'

MoneyeXtra is an Internet-based "infomediary" with a wide coverage of personal financial products including mortgages, personal loans, investment products, savings accounts, credit cards and insurance. It has links that facilitate their purchase and and investment tracking facility, used by 300,000 investors to record and track portfolio values

The initial focus of MoneyeXtra is financial advice and transactions via its website but there are plans to launch a full personal face to face and contact centre based advice service in early 2001.