We've been in this banking crisis for 2.5 years now, yet we still have not seen any widespread restructing of the banks and none seems to be on the cards. The policy seems to be to retain the main banks in more or less their current forms - maybe a few new Directors, but essentially allowing them to continue as before.
I would have thought that the cost of the bailout would have been something more radical. I would also have thought that efforts would be made to secure the high street retail banking services sector as we are continually being told that this is of systemic importance re: payment of peoples wages, atms, current accounts for small business etc.
For example, the high street banking sections of BOI & AIB could have been fractioned out from the bad parts of the banks and completely restructed. One idea would be to create 3 or 4 separate high street banks out of the combined BOI and AIB branches - each with a 50:50 mixture of BOI and AIB so as to ensure (i) that we retain competition in the sector and (ii) that none of the banks going forward have the ethos either company.
There have also been no efforts to sell of parts of branch networks to overseas banks or encourage overseas banks to set up in Ireland - current accounts and high street banking in Ireland are generally profitable, so Ireland would be an attractive market for an overseas bank, particularly if they were given a ready made network of branches.
It should be Government policy to encourage foreign banks to break into the Irish market as if the majority of high street banks are non-Irish, then if a crisis happens in the future, they'll be guaranteed in their parent countries thus getting us off the hook.
I would have thought that the cost of the bailout would have been something more radical. I would also have thought that efforts would be made to secure the high street retail banking services sector as we are continually being told that this is of systemic importance re: payment of peoples wages, atms, current accounts for small business etc.
For example, the high street banking sections of BOI & AIB could have been fractioned out from the bad parts of the banks and completely restructed. One idea would be to create 3 or 4 separate high street banks out of the combined BOI and AIB branches - each with a 50:50 mixture of BOI and AIB so as to ensure (i) that we retain competition in the sector and (ii) that none of the banks going forward have the ethos either company.
There have also been no efforts to sell of parts of branch networks to overseas banks or encourage overseas banks to set up in Ireland - current accounts and high street banking in Ireland are generally profitable, so Ireland would be an attractive market for an overseas bank, particularly if they were given a ready made network of branches.
It should be Government policy to encourage foreign banks to break into the Irish market as if the majority of high street banks are non-Irish, then if a crisis happens in the future, they'll be guaranteed in their parent countries thus getting us off the hook.