British bank’s Irish operations thrive

BRITISH bank Northern Rock has reported its highest half-yearly performance in the Irish market, since establishing a presence here seven years ago.

Irish savers deposited €445 million of new funds with the bank since last December. New savings balances grew 30% to €1.94 billion in the first half of this year.

The rise in popularity of online accounts was seen as a key driver in the company’s balance growth here and it is understood one-in-three of its Irish customers have an online account.

Northern Rock yesterday published its interim results for the first half of 2006. The overall group recorded underlying pre-tax profits of £273.7m (€395.9m), a year-on-year rise of 14.4%. Its share of the British net residential mortgage lending market reached 14.3%.

“We achieved all of our strategic targets and have put in place some key building blocks for the longer term,” group chief executive Adam Applegarth said.

With specific regard to its Irish operations, commercial director Andy Kuipers said: “We’re delighted with the continuing success of our Dublin operation. More and more customers are taking advantage of the transparent, competitive and easy to operate accounts we offer. To break these records, whilst facing increased competition, demonstrates the attractiveness of our savings range.”