Ulster Bank hails success of Saturday opening

Ulster Bank has today stated that its policy of Saturday opening has been "a major success" since the initiative began in September 2010.

Almost 60,000 customers visited the 45 Saturday branches in 2010, the bank said, which helped to attract 115,000 new current account holders to Ulster Bank in 2010.

The institution claims that it has more branches open on a Saturday than any other bank across the Island of Ireland.

In another part of its programme of Customer Commitments, more than 345,000 text messages were sent to the 40,000 customers who are now signed up to mobile banking.

“We are delighted that customers are responding so positively to our efforts to make their banking easier and fairer,” said Richard Donnan, chief executive of retail markets at Ulster Bank.

“We are now opening on a Saturday because our customers told us that they would find it helpful, and the results to date show us that this is proving to be the case.

“Extending our weekday opening hours has also provided additional flexibility for our customers who told us they wanted more convenient banking.”