Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking is to double its domestic business over the next five years, a target which will see the bank reinforce its relationships with multinationals and develop a property business of scale.
The bank, which has hired 100 professionals in the past year, bringing total employment up to 375, will also focus on expanding its business in high growth niche sectors in international markets. Corporate banking currently contributes 15 per cent of overall BOI Group profits. | | BOI Corporate hired over 100 professionals in the past year. |
The strategy has been developed as part of a refocusing programme, which has been implemented over the last eighteen months to ensure that the bank is well positioned to exploit opportunities in Ireland, the US, UK, French and German markets. Some elements of this programme include the acquisition and integration of Burdale Financial Limited into the specialised finance business; the recruitment of a key UK media finance team, and the opening of its first European office in Paris.
Also, during the first five months of 2005, in excess of €1 billion of asset-backed securities (ABS) was acquired by the bank’s ABS investment team, which is led by Ray Wyer, due to the good availability of ABS issues and improved pricing relative to that prevailing last year. The bank secured a range of new banking relationships in the Irish international financial services (IFS) sector, including funds company UBS, reinsurer Allied World and insurer Vicenza Life.
BOI Corporate was restructured in 2004 when Richie Boucher became chief executive of the operation, and a number of changes were made, including the dissolution of Bank of Ireland International Finance.
The operation is now organised into five customer facing units – property (15p.c. of commitments), domestic (7p.c.), institutional (40p.c.), global project finance (9p.c.) and specialised finance teams (28p.c.) in Europe and the US.
BOI’s property finance team will focus on high-end niche property business in Ireland, the UK, Europe, and US, and on transactions in excess of €30 million. The group, which currently employs 26 people, is set to increase further with a London based property team which will be established by financial year-end. |
