Ulster Bank
Ulster Bank Group continued to expand its footprint across the island of Ireland. In 2007, we opened seven new joint branch and business centres for Ulster Bank and three new First Active stores. This is the new branch and business centre at Blackpool in County Cork.
Highlights
- Ulster Bank Corporate Markets won the KPMG Business Banking Excellence Award for the third consecutive year.
- With more than 1,100 machines our ATM network is now the second largest on the island of Ireland.
- We funded the first large scale biodiesel production plant in Ireland, helping Ireland to meet its EU Biofuels Directive obligations.
Contribution (£m)
Ulster Bank Group achieved impressive results while expanding its footprint and introducing innovative new products. Across Ireland we opened seven joint Ulster Bank branch and business centres, three First Active stores and refurbished 46 locations. Two new mobile branches enabled us to improve further the service provided to customers in rural locations.
We built on our integration with the RBS IT platform to launch new products including a number unique to the Irish market. These included a new business banking proposition for start-ups; OneCard, the first all-in-one card in the Irish market allowing smaller companies to rationalise their payments process; and the first personalised credit card, allowing customers to brand their cards with the image of their choice.
First Active delivered a record year in investments, capitalising on the opportunity presented by the maturity of the Special Savings Account Ireland, a government-backed savings scheme.
Our Corporate Markets business leveraged the strengths of the wider Group to finance construction of the N6 motorway and widening of the M50 ring road around Dublin. The consortium for these Public Private
Partnerships involved contractors from Spain and Ireland,
and Ulster Bank worked closely with GBM in Madrid, the
relationship bankers to the Spanish firms.
Citizens – Next
© 2008