Mr. Eamonn Crowley:

It is fair to say that share prices of bank stocks across Europe have been subdued for an extended period of time due to the impact of Covid and the uncertainty of outcome that gave rise to. Also, banking business models in Europe are somewhat under threat because of negative interest rates and excess liquidity. That is the case in Ireland more so than other European countries. Credit formation has been low in recent years arising from the crisis and the difficulties that gave. Also, saving rates have increased significantly. Savings among Irish households are up €30 billion in the last three years, with over €15 billion of that in the last year alone. There is an excess of liquidity over lending. That excess liquidity attracts a negative rate and is having an impact on the profitability of banks and the return we make as organisations.

To come back to the core point, if I take Irish share prices in their own right, they were much impacted by Covid and the uncertainty of Brexit. We saw that once there was some positive news on Brexit, together with a lifting of Covid restrictions or at least a visibility of that, Irish share prices have recently increased. Our share price has gone up significantly but I would also suggest that it is based on speculation around our previous discussion relating to the Ulster Bank franchise. In more recent weeks, the share prices have come down slightly but they are at a higher level versus where they were in recent years. I would suggest that there is an anticipated increase in commercial activity among wider society post pandemic. I appreciate that there is an element of society that may not benefit from that but generally there is an anticipation of extra spending. Banks, in the main, should be the beneficiary of that, including by way of our mortgage demand as we can see, which is significantly higher.