Mr. Maurice Crowley:

It is a demographic the bank is pursuing successfully. It will be incumbent on the main retail banks here to respond to that competition. The Senator asked about today's accountability regime versus what is proposed. I do not know if the word "regime" is the right one. There is a level of accountability within each bank, as there should be, and each bank operates that in its own fashion. However, there are advantages to SEAR because it makes clear each individual senior executive's function, role and responsibilities. The point was made earlier that it is about mapping across an organisation to ensure there are no gaps in the responsibility map. Everything is covered at the end of the day. It will bring a welcome level of formality and framework to the whole process but if one talks to an individual bank, there are performance review and assessment processes involving senior executives all the way up to the board. However, this gives us a lot more visibility within a bank and more visibility to the supervisor, namely the Central Bank or Ireland or the ECB. That is important and that is why we welcome it. Given what has happened in the past, we need to be able to demonstrate more clearly as a sector and as individual banks that we are taking responsibility for a wide range of issues, not just for the return of equity and profitability in the institution. The Senator referred to pressure to sell products and meet targets. There has been a great deal of change in the regulation in that regard over the past number of years, and rightly so, largely through the good work of the Central Bank of Ireland. I mentioned the consumer protection code. Between the Central Bank and Europe, a great deal of work has been done on product oversight and governance as to the initial design of a product, its performance, who buys it, who does not and what the outcomes are. That is all necessary change given what happened.