Professor Philip Lane:

They were factors before but the dominant factor was the general credit bubble and all the factors that went along with that. The point I was trying to make in the opening statement was that, in addition to dealing with the legacy of the crisis, we also have to recognise new challenges facing the banks, including the implications of new technology for different customers. I know the joint committee has repeatedly raised these matters with the banks when it has interviewed their spokespersons. Generally speaking, incumbent banks face the conflict where they may have legacy IT systems versus dealing with how to invest in new technologies to deal with the new circumstances in which we find ourselves. This issue is not confined to Irish banks but is faced by banks across the international system. Information technology is facing emerging risks and we have seen repeatedly that cyber-risk is an emerging issue. In addition to delivering the technologies that allow people to do their business, protecting systems is now much more expensive than it used to be.