Is it time for a third force in Irish banking?

Now that the foreign banks are well and truly gone, we need stronger competition to prevent AIB and BoI from permanently dominating the market

It is nearly 20 years since Bank of Scotland began the invasion of foreign banks into Ireland. This turned out to be a mostly ill-fated and disastrous foray into Irish banking. In 1999, the British lender caused a near panic when it entered the Irish mortgage market by undercutting every lender with what was then a rock bottom variable interest rate of just shy of 4 per cent.

Every bank was ultimately to ...