Ni Banking Market

NI Banking Market

Historically dominated by the 4 ‘home’ banks; Ulster Bank, First Trust, Bank of Ireland & Danske.

The former 3 banks operate on an all Ireland basis, however, the composition of businesses (significant majority being family owned SME’s) is such that this is not considered there is any real source of competitive advantage.

The majority of the market share is deemed to still be shared amongst the ‘home’ banks, however, recent years has seen the proliferation of some of the mainland UK banks, such as: HSBC, Santander, Barclays.

It is also the norm for the majority of businesses in NI to be banked with a single provider and this, to a certain extent, can act as an insulator to competitive pressures; noting that moving to a competitor can involve full re-bank of all facilities and collaterals, etc.

Santander have been particularly ambitious and aggressive in recent years; setting up new Business/Corporate banking centres and increasing visibility in an effort to penetrate the market and gain share of wallet.

They have also continued to offer aggressive pricing packages to attract start up and SME businesses which focus around ‘fee free’ banking for an initial period (1-2 years).

It is considered they have had some element of success in the bottom end of the SME sector but in the large business it is not considered that they currently have the network and distribution capability to really impact the core banking market – However, they continue to actively target this segment.

There appears to have been some evidence of a willingness to push the boundaries in the commercial property sector in recent years with regards credit appetite with soundings of them being interested when, perhaps, some other providers were less so.

HSBC and Barclays appear more selective in their approach, targeting specific attractive propositions. Both appear to have been quite aggressive in the Agricultural sector over the past couple of years; offering...