BANK OF IRELAND'S Irish businesses have performed strongly so far this year and a good performance is expected for the year as a whole, shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting were told yesterday.

Billy Saunderson, chief executive of card payments company EuroConex, talks to David Clerkin.

NOVA Information Systems and Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank (ALCB), a subsidiary of Alliance & Leicester plc, have signed an agreement for the sale of ALCB’s credit card merchant acquiring business to an affiliate of NOVA.

BANK of Ireland's new focus on selling-off non-core businesses and developing a sustainable lower cost base is not a prelude to relocating work to low-cost countries like India, the bank said last night.

BANK of Ireland has netted €40 million from the sale of its stake in the payment-processing firm EuroConex Technologies.

euroConex, the Irish-headquartered card payment processing solutions provider, established by Bank of Ireland and the US-based NOVA EuroConex Holdings Inc. has made Irish acquiring history by becoming the first Irish acquirer to deploy CHIP-enabled point-of-sale terminals in Europe.