('''NIB''') is a
Commercial Bank in the
Republic Of Ireland , one of the traditional
Big Four . The bank has been owned by
Danske Bank since
1 March 2005 .
It is the fourth largest
High Street Bank in the Republic of Ireland and offers a full range of commercial and personal banking products. It is part of the
Laser 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, with a new look and product offering unvieled on
18 April 2006 .
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 (at the time), except that the red star had 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.
On
1st March 2005 Danske formally took control of National Irish Bank. It 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, was 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, however a two year extra-service agreement exists in that the bank will continue to receive many key technology services from the National Australia Group.
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. On
14 April 2006 the old NAB-style logotype was replaced with the new logo on the bank's website, with the bank formally being relaunch relaunched on
18 April , with a new product offering, and a revamped internet banking system. Among the innovations is the use of
Text Messages to communicate with customers.
In June 2005 Andrew Healy was appointed
Chief Executive Officer of National Irish Bank.
