No Irish nominations for Bank of the Year awards

By Geoff Percival

Saturday, December 05, 2009

DESPITE being named in honour of a prominent Irish businessman, no Irish bank was deemed worthy of nomination for the latest international Bank of the Year Awards, doled out in London on Thursday night by the Banker magazine.

"It’s very important to recognise the achievements of the banking industry during challenging times. The awards recognise banks for serving customers and building good businesses and the entries and winners this year have been of a very high calibre," said the magazine’s editor, Brian Caplen.

Each winner (the global/western Europe bank of the year was Santander) received the Bracken Award – named after the founding editor of the Banker and the Financial Times Brendan Bracken, who was born in Co Tipperary.

However, no bank from his homeland was in on the celebrations, even though banks from 144 countries were represented on the night.

According to the organisers: "The past 18 months have been among the worst times that many bankers have ever known. The challenges have required all of their skills to manage their institutions through stormy waters.

"This being one of the toughest years ever in banking, it wasn’t deemed appropriate to issue awards across all countries. In places where the entire system has been under stress, or where no bank made an overwhelming case for the award, no prize was given. Such countries include Belgium, the Baltic states, Iceland, Ireland and Nigeria."

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, December 05, 2009