Bank of Ireland

Bank of Ireland is the oldest bank in continuous operation (apart from closures due to bank strikes in 1950, 1966, 1970, 1976, 1992 and 1992) in Ireland.

The Bank of Ireland Act 1781 (21 & 22 Geo. 3. c. 16 (I)) was passed by the Parliament of Ireland, establishing the Bank of Ireland. On 25 June 1783, Bank of Ireland opened for business at St Mary's Abbey in a private house previously owned by one Charles Blakeney.

On 6 June 1808, Bank of Ireland moved to the former Parliament House at 2 College Green. By 1827, it had seven branches outside of Dublin, in Belfast, Clonmel, Cork, Derry, Newry, Waterford and Westport.

In 1864, Bank of Ireland paid its first interest on deposits.

By 1883, Bank of Ireland had 58 branches throughout Ireland, and by 1920, the number had grown to 75.

In 1922, Bank of Ireland was appointed as banker to the Government of Ireland.

In 1926, Bank of Ireland took control of the National Land Bank. In 1948, The Bank of Ireland 1783–1946 by F.G. Hall was published jointly by Hodges Figgis (Dublin) and Blackwell's (Oxford).

In 1958, the bank took over the Hibernian Bank Limited.

In 1965, the National Bank Ltd, a bank founded by Daniel O'Connell in 1835, had branches in Ireland and Britain. The Irish branches were acquired by Bank of Ireland (changing its name to the National Bank of Ireland Ltd), and rebranded temporarily as National Bank of Ireland, before being fully incorporated into Bank of Ireland. The British branches were acquired by Williams & Glyn's Bank.

In 1969, Bank of Ireland, Hibernian Bank and the National Bank of Ireland were merged to form the Bank of Ireland Group.

In 1980, Bank of Ireland opened its first ATM (branded as Pass Machines). In 1983, Bank of Ireland celebrated its Bi-Centenary and a commemorative stamp was issued. The Bank also commissioned the publication of "An Irish Florilegium" that year. Only branches in cities and major towns had ATMs in the 1980s but branches in most medium and small towns installed then in the 1990s.

In 1990, Bank of Ireland offered Visa cards for the first time. In 1995, Bank of Ireland merged First New Hampshire Bank with Royal Bank of Scotland's Citizens Financial Group. In 1996, it introduced telephone banking.

In 1996, Bank of Ireland bought the Bristol and West building society for UK£600 million (€882 million), which kept its own brand. …

Bank of Ireland is headquartered at Group Head Office Baggot Plaza 27-33 Upper Baggot St Dublin, and has operations in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere.

The group provides a broad range of financial services in Ireland to the personal, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors. These include checking and deposit services, overdrafts, term loans, mortgages, international asset financing, leasing, instalment credit, debt financing, foreign exchange facilities, interest and exchange rate hedging instruments, executor and trustee services.

At its height in 1969, Bank of Ireland had 500 branches in the Republic of Ireland. By 2022, the number of branches had gradually been cut to 169.

In Northern Ireland, Bank of Ireland prints its own banknotes in Pounds Sterling (see section on banknotes below).

In 2021, the number of branches in Northern Ireland was cut from 28 to 13.

In Great Britain, the bank expanded largely through the takeover of the Bristol and West Building Society in 1996. Bank of Ireland also provides Post Office branded savings accounts throughout the UK. The bank previously offered Post Office mortgages and personal loans, as well as AA branded savings and personal loans, but withdrew these products in 2023.

Operations in the rest of the world are primarily undertaken by Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking which provides services in France, Germany, Spain and the United States.

Although the Bank of Ireland is not a central bank, it does have sterling note-issuing rights in the United Kingdom. While the Bank has its headquarters in Dublin, it also has operations in Northern Ireland, where it retains the legal right (dating from before the partition of Ireland) to print its own banknotes. These are pound sterling notes and equal in value to Bank of England notes, and should not be confused with banknotes of the former Irish pound.

The obverse side of Bank of Ireland banknotes features the Bank of Ireland logo, below which is a line of heraldic shields each representing one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. Below this is a depiction of a seated Hibernia figure, surrounded by the Latin motto of the Bank, Bona Fides Reipublicae Stabilitas ("Good Faith is the Cornerstone of the State"). The current series of £5, £10 and £20 notes, issued in April 2008, all feature an illustration of the Old Bushmills Distillery on the reverse side. Prior to 2008, all Bank of Ireland notes featured an image of the Queen's University of Belfast on the reverse side.

The principal difference between the denominations is their colour and size:

The Bank of Ireland has never issued its own banknotes in the Republic of Ireland. Section 60 of the Currency Act 1927 removed the right of Irish banks to issue banknotes, however "consolidated banknotes", of a common design issued by all "Shareholder Banks" under the Act, were issued between 1929 and 1953. These notes were not legal tender.

Michael Soden abruptly quit as group chief executive on 29 May 2004 when it was discovered that adult material that contravened company policy was found on his Bank PC. Soden issued a personal statement explaining that the high standards of integrity and behaviour in an environment of accountability, transparency and openness, which he espoused, would cause embarrassment to the Bank.

A IR£30.5 million tax arrears liability was settled by Bank of Ireland in July 2000. The Bank told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee Inquiry that its liability was in the region of £1.5 million. The settlement figure was 'dictated' by the Revenue Commissioners following an audit by the Commissioners. It was in Bank of Ireland that some of the most celebrated of the "celebrated cases" of non-compliance and bogus non-resident accounts have to date been discovered and disclosed. Thurles, Boyle, Roscrea (1990), Milltown Malbay (1991), Dundalk (1989–90), Killester (1992), Tullamore (1993), Mullingar (1996), Castlecomer, Clonmel, Ballybricken, Ballinasloe, Skibbereen (1988), Dungarvan and, disclosed to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Sub-Committee, Ballaghaderreen (1998) and Ballygar (1999). The Public Accounts Sub-Committee Inquiry concluded that "the most senior executives in the Bank of Ireland did seek to set an ethical tone for the bank and unsuccessfully sought Revenue Commissioners assistance to promote an industry-wide Code of Practice".

In April 2008 it was announced that four laptops with data pertaining to 10,000 customers were stolen between June and October 2007. This customer information included names, addresses, bank details, medical and pension details.

The thefts were initially reported to the Garda Síochána, however the Banks senior management did not know about the problem until February 2008 after an internal audit uncovered the theft and the Bank did not advise the Data Protection Commissioner and the Central Bank of Ireland until mid-April 2008. It also came to light that none of the laptops used encryption to protect the sensitive data. …

On 5 March 2009, the shares reached €0.12 during the day, thereby reducing the value of the company by over 99% from its 2007 high. At the 2009 AGM, shareholders criticised the performance of their Auditors, PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The Central Bank told the Oireachtas Enterprise Committee that shareholders who lost their money in the banking collapse were to blame for their fate and got what was coming to them for not keeping bank chiefs in check, but did admit that the Central Bank had failed to give sufficient warning about reckless lending to property developers.