BANK OF IRELAND mortgages could be available through Post Office branches in Scotland, following a pilot in the north-east of England. The bank also plans to put up to 700 financial services specialists in POs across the UK.
Fixed-rate mortgage products from BoI are on offer in selected POs south of the border and, depending on the results of the trial, they could be rolled out across the UK.
Through its PO joint venture, BoI already sells products such as insurance i
n 14,000 POs around the UK. It also runs a foreign exchange service and manages ATMs for the PO.
Around 200 financial services experts are already working in POs. Across the country it will employ 600-700 consultants. They will not offer regulated financial advice, but will guide customers through the product range.
BoI said that despite PO closures it still has a bigger network than any bank in the UK.
BoI – which last week reported a 6% increase in pre-tax profits to ?1.7bn and, in Scotland, saw income increase by 60% over the year – said it has ambitious plans. Des Crowley, chief executive of BoI UK, said: "One of the things I spotted two years ago is that we had very little business out of Scotland because we didn't have a team on the ground. Earlier this year we hired Norrie Henderson as director of lending in Scotland, based in Edinburgh. We're making good progress in appointing new employees and generating business. We like the mortgage market in Scotland as it's well-managed and is growing steadily."
BoI, through its offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, aims to grow its share of the Scottish mortgage market from virtually nothing to 5% over the next five years. While other lenders have been pulling mortgages, especially ones with high loans to value for first-time buyers because of the credit crunch, BoI introduced its First Start parental guarantee product in Scotland earlier this year.
Crowley said: "We see ourselves as a challenger brand and our ambitious plans have attracted a lot of employees from HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland. We're strongly capitalised, we're clearly not doing a rights issue.
"Our liquidity is good as we've grown deposits by 27% this year through the business bank and PO joint venture. There's lots of opportunity for us while other banks are withdrawing. We have a three-pronged approach in Scotland: growing our business bank, our mortgage business and working with the PO to move from being a small player to a reasonably sized one."
The full article contains 436 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
