There’s lots going on. With the big Irish banks fully occupied with NAMA, the smaller ones involved in merger talks, the announcement and immediate implementation of the Halifax withdrawal and the news that Northern Rock may possibly lift their 100% UK state guarantee, it has certainly been an eventful start to the year.
2010 will be the year of drastic but necessary restructuring within the banking sector here in Ireland. Once the storms around closures, consolidation, cost cutting and restructuring have died down, I firmly believe that there’s a responsibility on all banks to take a closer look at competitive practices here. We need to put the customer back at the heart of what we do and focus on what’s best for them.
At this point in time, Irish customers are not helped by the limited numbers of Irish players in the market coupled with the confusion around some foreign owned players who themselves have unclear direction from their parent banks who have issues of their own. In addition, we’re still not free from the stubborn tendencies many banks practice when they continue to offer unsustainable loss leading headline rates with lots of T&C’s and old fashion advertising tricks. Doesn’t exactly make for a bright future if we continue down this route. The industry as a whole needs to regain customer trust. It’s time to get back to basics.
At RaboDirect, we still see interesting opportunities within the retail banking sector on which we plan to capitalise as we continue to build on our strong position within Ireland as the straight talking online bank.
Just to be absolutely straight about this: RaboDirect has no plans to leave Ireland. In fact, we’re looking forward to expanding our online business here over the coming years. We entered the Irish market almost 5 years ago and since then we have steadily grown our customer base to over 63,000 and indeed our range of saving and investment products.
Over the coming months we will be announcing some exciting offerings for Irish customers who are increasingly rejecting the old ways of doing business as they look to take their investment and saving decisions into their own hands. In the coming months we’ll look to introduce a ten year term deposit for personal and business savers. If that’s not long term commitment! And we’ll also be looking to expand our fund range allowing investors to take advantage of the opportunities this current market can offer.
There’s been much talk about level playing fields in the Irish banking sector and, while this remains naturally an issue, our main priority at RaboDirect is to make sure customers are given transparent information on the range of financial products available to them. We’ve always been about straight talking and offering simple products without the jargon. And this continues to be met with great positivity by our customers.
As I have already said, unfortunately many banks still offer fantastic promotional rates, but I am afraid that those savings rates are no longer sustainable. At the end of the day, banks need to get back to a healthy business model where margins are positive again. This will allow them to play a key and critical role in returning the Irish economy to a steady footing.
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