DUBLIN, Ohio–The Bank of Ireland has confirmed plans to close 103 branches in the country, as it seeks to reduce its branch network by one third in the Republic of Ireland and by one-half in Northern Ireland and instead shift toward digital delivery of services.
At the same time, a former politician in the country has stepped up to issue a statement of support for credit unions in Ireland, which have seen a rebound in financial strength, even though there has been consolidation and the overall loan-to-share ratio among Irish CUs remains low.
Under the headline “Time to Drop the Dickensian View of Irish Credit Unions,” former Sen. Joe O’Toole wrote in the Irish Times, “Much of the recent commentary on the slow death of the Irish Credit Union sector is greatly exaggerated. It evokes an almost-Dickensian reflection of times past when the “man of the house” was paid in cash and, on the way to the pub on a Saturday night, he dropped into the local credit union in a corner of the parish hall and, in the flickering candlelight, put down a few shillings to pay for Christmas.”
O’Toole is chairman of Metamo Credit Union Group, essentially a CUSO owned by 16 credit unions.
‘Smell the Candle Wax’
“It’s all very Abbey Theatre and you can almost smell the candle wax, but that time is long gone,” O’Toole continued. “Irish credit unions have modernized and are fighting back. They are professionally managed by qualified staff and are highly regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Undoubtedly, though, they are under serious pressure: a combination of impossibly low returns on investments and a massive ramp-up of regulation means the traditional business model of the credit union is being turned on its head.”
O’Toole went on to write the CUs have won the “trust and confidence” of their communities and have been using their critical mass to become “strong, commercial, collaborative collective with its raison d’etre to harness its combined strength for local advantage.”