Ulster Bank closing down for good in Ireland

Thrugelmir

brianposter said:

Thrugelmir said:

For what purpose? 

If you are exporting things abroad you might want to get paid ?

And the relevance to Ulster Bank shutting down in Eire? 

brianposter

There are odd people who export from the UK to Eire and the Ulster bank has the potential to be relatively knowledgeable on the subject.

Rich2808

brianposter said:

There are odd people who export from the UK to Eire and the Ulster bank has the potential to be relatively knowledgeable on the subject.

No more than AIB or Bank of Ireland who also have UK subsidiaries.
Seemingly a cost cutting exercise for RBS Natwest as the Republic is too small a market for them and all those branches have huge overhead costs and they can rebrand as Natwest in NI.
So the AIB/BoI duopoly in the Republic gets even more market share - in most small and medium sized towns they already are the only face to face banking options bar small credit unions. 

brianposter

It is certainly pretty odd. Surely if you run a bank in Ireland you get loads of euro/pound foreign exchange transactions which is probably the most genuinely profitable part of most banking systems.

Why should Ulster bank be unable to capitalise on this ?

eskbanker

brianposter said:

It is certainly pretty odd. Surely if you run a bank in Ireland you get loads of euro/pound foreign exchange transactions which is probably the most genuinely profitable part of most banking systems.

Why should Ulster bank be unable to capitalise on this ?

Not as simple as that if there are more significant structural issues at play - https://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/natwest-considers-closing-ulster-bank-in-the-republic-1.4357689 highlighted some of its problems last September:

Ulster Bank’s UK parent is actively considering winding down the lender in the Republic, as the challenge of turning around a business struggling with high costs and low profitability has become even greater as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to sources.

[...]

Ulster Bank received a bailout from RBS of £15.3 billion (€16.4 million) after the 2008 crash, about a third of the money UK taxpayers pumped into the entire group.

Having spent more than last decade selling off problem loans, cutting jobs and branches, the Dublin-based unit’s assets had shrunk to €30.6 billion by the end of last year – less than half what they were at the peak.

Ulster Bank’s costs have remained stubbornly high and it has consistently failed to make enough money to cover its own funding costs in recent years. Its cost to income ratio was 98.4 per cent in the first half of this year.

Loss

Ulster Bank made a €276 million operating loss for the first six months of 2020, compared to a €26 million profit for the same period in 2019, as it set aside €278 million to cover likely loan losses resulting from the coronavirus crisis, and as new lending fell sharply.

brianposter

I notice "The Edinburgh-based RBS group formally split Ulster Bank’s operation in the Republic from Ulster Bank Northern Ireland in 2015."

So I wonder where in the accounts the foreign exchange profits appear.