National Irish Bank

From Wikicompany

National Irish Bank (NIB) is one of the Big Four commercial banks in Republic of Ireland. The bank is owned by Danske Bank since 1 March 2005.

NIB is the fourth largest high street bank in the Republic of Ireland and offers a full range of commercial and personal banking products. NIB is part of the Laser debit card payment system.

The bank's reputation has been tarnished somewhat as a result of a scandal in its personal banking division some years ago (see history, below). However the bank is now preparing to undergo change as a result of its acquisition by Danske Bank.

History

National Irish Bank was set up in 1987, under the name Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited, when the Midland Bank, UK separated its operations in the Republic of Ireland from its Northern Ireland operation, Northern Bank.

In 1988, Northern Bank, in both the Republic and Northern Ireland, was acquired by the National Australia Bank Limited, and the Republic of Ireland operation renamed National Irish Bank Limited whilst the Northern Bank remains the name of the Northern Ireland operation. Nonetheless, a single management team continued to run both banks, which shared many services and back office functions.

During this era, the logo of the National Irish Bank was that of the National Australia Bank, except that the red star was been recoloured green, and "Irish Bank" was added alongside the word "National". The original Northern Bank (Ireland) logo had been the Midland Bank griffin.

In 1998, RTE journalists Charlie Bird and George Lee uncovered a massive scandal at the National Irish Bank involving overcharging of customers at the bank and tax avoidance schemes. Inspectors appointed by the High Court in Dublin confirmed that the bank had overcharged customers.

In December 2004, Danske Bank agreed to purchase National Irish Bank (and Northern Bank) from the National Australia Bank for STG£967m. [edit]

Changes under Danske

On 1st March 2005 Danske Bank formally took control of National Irish Bank. Danske Bank announced as its first act that the Northern Bank and National Irish Bank would be fully separated from each other, with a new management team appointed to National Irish Bank. An interim CEO, John Trethowan, has been appointed. Some shared back office services will remain. The bank will change over to the Danske Bank technology platform and remove any shared services provided by National Australia Bank Europe. Also the bank will adopt the logo of Danske Bank, albeit with the word "Danske" replaced by "National Irish". As preparation for this change, the star logo has been dropped by National Irish Bank, along with the National Australia "Tailored Financial Solutions" slogan.