Northern Bank and NIB to separate

DANSKE BANK is to separate Northern Bank and National Irish Bank into two stand-alone units.

It made the announcement following the completion of the acquisition of the banks from National Australia Bank yesterday.

Don Price, who was boss of the Irish operations for the past several years, is to take over as chief executive of Northern Bank. National Irish Bank’s chief operating officer John Trethowan will act as its chief executive until a new chief executive is appointed. The chairman of Danske Bank’s executive board, Peter Straarup, will chair the boards of both banks.

“Northern Bank and NIB take up very different positions in their markets, and we believe that the separation of the two banks will help us focus on activities and create growth,” he said.

The European Commission recently cleared Danske Bank’s acquisition of National Irish Bank and Northern Bank.

Danske announced the €1.4 billion acquisition from National Australia Bank in December.

NIB has 59 branches throughout Ireland with a workforce of over 800 employees. It has 167,000 retail and business customers and its lending totals €2.9bn.

Northern Bank is the largest retail bank in the North with 95 branches and about 2,300 employees. It has 415,000 retail and business customers and its lending totals £3.2bn.

IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick welcomed yesterday’s announcement.

He has had “constructive” meetings recently with Danske Bank and Danish sister union Finansforbundet about staff concerns.

Mr Broderick expressed overall satisfaction with Dankse and believes its track record augurs well for workers in the two Irish based banking operations.

Danske’s takeover of the two NAB subsidiaries ends a long saga for the two banks.

They were the subject of takeover speculation for several years and NAB insisted the subsidiaries are not for sale.

In the middle of last year a seven-year investigation into dodgy dealings by NIB was completed.

Nineteen senior executives were named in the report as having facilitated tax evasion and of illegally transferring money from client accounts in the bank.