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Sunday, 2nd November 2025 |
| Bringing a flexible approach to treasury |
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Ulster Bank has transformed its financial markets/treasury division over the past three years.
BARRY MCCALL reports on Ulster Bank’s ‘global reach, local delivery’ approach. |
Gerry Brown is Ulster bank’s most senior executive in financial markets treasury in the IFSC. Three years ago, he remodelled the treasury dealing room, introducing a new system, an extensive training programme and a larger team of specialists, enabling the bank to deliver a more advanced suite of products and solutions to the Irish marketplace.
The new treasury delivers benefits to the group’s business customers, working closely with the corporate bank; property finance; the 32 business centres and 272 Ulster Bank and First Active branches throughout Ireland.
To remodel the business in terms of infrastructure and product range delivered by his team, Gerry was able to leverage off Ulster Bank’s parent, The Royal Bank of Scotland. The RBS group is currently the third largest banking group in Europe by market capitalisation.
‘When I approached my colleagues at RBS Financial Markets, my main concern was that some Irish based companies were going directly to London for their treasury needs, because they could not get the range of solutions in Ireland'.
‘My aim was to adapt the RBS group model to work for us here in Ireland and they delivered with us and for us. The Irish model aims to provide a local service, delivered by a team of people with excellent reputation and considerable experience in the Irish market. We have invested significantly in training our people, to deliver the solutions in Ireland that RBS has done on a global basis. We believe that we are responsible for taking treasury to the next level on the island of Ireland.' Gerry calls it a ‘Global reach, local delivery’ approach.
Gerry has dealt with business customers all his working life and as a career banker, he is always conscious that delivering what his customers really want is the key to success. He has built up a treasury team to deliver added value in the area of risk management solutions to businesses with foreign exchange, interest rate, commodity, inflation and other types of exposure. His team offers solutions that can work for all types of businesses from the small wholesaler or manufacturer; the property developer or investor and right up to the largest multinational.
‘Demand is not for dealers as such but for treasury experts who truly understand the risks inherent in their customers business and who are committed to working closely with them to explore and mitigate the various types of risk that they may face,' says Brown. ‘The added value is in getting to know the customer’s business so that we can offer ways to ensure their business interests are protected.'
‘One key word I would use to reflect where we are now as a treasury operation is flexibility – we really respond
to customers needs,' he continues. ‘Two years ago we were more product led. Now we provide considered solutions; adaptable and flexible, based on our customers risk requirements and their ultimate goals and objectives. The solution we provide will be right on the day, but the markets will move one way or the other almost immediately. Our job doesn’t stop once the deal is done; we continue to work with the customer to adapt the solution to meet changing market conditions as well as their changing needs. To reinforce our relationship approach, FM – treasury specialists work within the business centres, corporate and property finance teams and are responsible for providing treasury solutions for their clients.'
An interesting example of this approach was the funding solution delivered to hotelier Liam Griffin for his recently opened Monart House Hotel – a new dedicated spa resort hotel near Enniscorthy in Co. Wexford. Mary Moloney from Ulster Bank Property Finance involved Stephen Masterson from treasury at an early stage in the process in order to deliver a unique funding package, which took account of the business’s needs.
‘Ulster Bank were very helpful,' says Liam Griffin. 'What they gave us was a step-up loan product. This means that you pay a low interest rate at the start and this rises during the life of the loan. This is very helpful to a business such as ours with a high level of capital expenditure. The hotel is costing ?20 million to develop, excluding the purchase cost, and the package delivered by Ulster Bank has been very important to its successful development to date.'
He describes the Ulster Bank approach as positive. ‘Not only was the bank available to consider our requests, they became proactive in developing a package which would meet our specific needs. They were also very helpful in tailoring the package to suit the tax breaks we are availing of for the hotel development.'
In conclusion, Gerry Brown says, ‘When our customers address the inherent risks affecting bottom-line performance, we work with them to identify suitable treasury solutions and these are not necessarily complicated. We now have a tremendous array of solutions and we provide a real choice for our customers – it’s worth talking to us.'
Gerry Brown can be contacted at:
01 643 1628 or e-mail: gerry.brown @ulsterbank.com |
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