The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) was established in 2009 as one of a number of initiatives taken by the government to address the serious crisis in Irish banking which had become increasingly evident over the course of 2008 and early 2009.

NAMA is an unusual corporate entity in that it began its life with a very large balance sheet and has been given the task of managing that balance sheet down to zero. It must recoup at a minimum all of the expenditure incurred by it on acquiring loans, on advancing working capital and on its own costs. In doing so, it will pursue all debts owed by its debtors to the greatest extent feasible.