KBC exiting Ireland

Frozen Veg wrote: »

Transfer to local credit union. Owned by the members.

Way too expensive IMO and there is a risk of negative interest rates without being warned. A bank would have to tell you they are introducing negative interest rates.

McGaggs wrote: »

Here's a list of some of the banks I've had accounts with:

Halifax Ireland
Nationwide UK Ireland
Rabobank
Ango Irish Bank
KBC
Ulster Bank

Can anyone see a pattern?

Don't forget Leeds Building Society & Bank of Scotland (Ireland) &Danske ( still in N.I.)

Taylor365 wrote: »

Right.

What is the best setup to not be dependent on any Irish bank? (ptsb/aib/boi/ebs)

N26, bunq or monese.

GarIT wrote: »

Way too expensive IMO and there is a risk of negative interest rates without being warned. A bank would have to tell you they are introducing negative interest rates.

Thought their fee is 4 a month which isn't bad as they have long opening hours and can still handle cash and cheques.

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

And Pfizer Bank operated for a while, giving good deposit rates - early 90s.

There were other niche banks like Guinness & Mahon and others whose names elude me. NIB ( Owned byNational Australia Bank),who took over Northern Bank (?Midland Bank) later I think taken over by Danske, Woodchester Credit Lyonnais (whichheld deposits as well as providing Finance Loans). Lombard and Ulster( NatWest Group)

Of all the deposit takers I dealt with Natonwide UK Ireland were the most professional and courteous.

I moved to KBC from BOI. Can't believe I'm going full circle. Can't shake off BOI.

Is N26 the best alternative? I have a current account with EBS and rarely use it as their online banking is absolutely appalling...

Off the top of my head:
Anglo Irish Bank
Danske Bank
Depfa Bank
Halifax Ireland
First Active
Irish Nationwide
Leeds Building Society Ireland
Nationwide UK (Ireland)
Rabobank Ireland

There were another 5 or 6 smaller banks that gave big interest rates but closed quietly around the crash too.
There was one that offered 10% when all the others were offering 7% around 1999. Bradford & Bingley I think.

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

They could continue to operate KBC as a separate brand, as AIB did with EBS.

I would doubt that BoI will operate under the KBC brand when KBC continues to operate as a bank elsewhere. Also keeping 2 sets of systems would be a total expensive mess.

Separately, anyone else think EBS might be next? It might make a lot of sense for AIB to merge the EBS and AIB brands and shut the EBS legacy branch network. Difficult to see how the legacy EBS branches that seem to mainly deal with cash transactions can be profitable.

Student_111 wrote: »

Merging systems can be significantly more expensive sometimes.

Yeah, merging systems is expensive. Keeping 2 sets of systems is also expensive and a mess.

One much lower cost option (if BoI want the KBC deposits, which I don't see why they would) is to send a largely-pre-populated current account switcher form to KBC customers. Switch by X date (and deal with a new IBAN, new internet login, new card etc) or move your deposits elsewhere.

Jim2007 wrote: »

What do you mean by dependent? At this point in time no matter which one you choose there is an equal chance of fees and terms being changed going forward because none of them are doing well.

They want to use a bank that isn't Irish.

JTMan wrote: »

Also keeping 2 sets of systems would be a total expensive mess.

May not have to. The link posted a few pages back says BOI's new platform will be based on T24, which is what KBC uses.

sebdavis wrote: »

https://www.fintechfutures.com/2019/03/fears-over-bank-of-ireland-e2bn-tech-revamp-cost/

Opened up an N26 business account yesterday in about 10 minutes.

Transferred what was in my revolut business account over. SEPA transfer arrived instantly.

Given that experience, I'll probably look to open up a personal current account with N26. Sod the "traditional" banks.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0416/1210322-banks-ireland-analysis/
nothing about the high interest rates and the billions of tax losses forward which BOI will buy

Overall, this is not surprise. As a few posters have said KBC is a commercial entity and their only goal is to make profits. We are in a period of low interest rates on all products, so there is a worldwide squeeze on profitability so they are making less (and will continue to do so in the foreseeable), so they will focus on the most profitable markets they can. Realistically Ireland dysfunctional market just isn’t one of these for numerous reasons.
Profits are massively squeezed, the lethargy of the Irish public in moving away from the big two banks is stark, they are offering higher rates yet still dominate new lending, so KBC will continue to struggle to develop sufficient market concentration to change their current position.
The historical business is still such a big element of their book. (pre 2015 say) still accounts for probably 70-80% of KBC’s book, and this is a massive drag on their profits. The 13-14% NPL rate they have 10-15 years after the crash is astounding. The tracker book was 40% of their book from a report from a few yrs ago (can’t open link here so open to correction on that figure) so that earning only 1% is a huge drag also. Irish customers are paying a hefty cost for the banks chronically mispricing their lending for years and given the length a mortgage this is still in effect today and will be for the next 10 yrs probably.
Capital levels are high, and justifiably so. Capital is set against risk, and we have a proven track record of being risky. We have a volatile economy, now massively dependent on Foreign direct investment, and there is a large risk there in terms of economic outlook with the pressure on the corporate tax regime. The for unsecured nature of the mortgage market has been well commented on. And is another key driver.
We are a tiny market, so there just is. It the diversification in lending needed. Some EU countries use mortgage lending to develop customer business and then generate large fee income from other products (insurance, current accounts, set up fees etc.) this just isn’t part of the Irish business model so other growth sources are scarce.

Overall, I I was over KBC I’d be taking the same actions.

lawred2 wrote: »

Opened up an N26 business account yesterday in about 10 minutes.

Transferred what was in my revolut business account over. SEPA transfer arrived instantly.

Given that experience, I'll probably look to open up a personal current account with N26. Sod the "traditional" banks.

Don't think you can have both a personal and a business account in parallel, unless they changed their rules recently.