Mr. Ale? Bla?ek:

It is a very tricky question. It is important to understand that the regulatory and legal corporate framework is very standard in Ireland and very similar to all European states. There are no real differences in this respect. Also, Ireland is an extremely attractive country in terms of its fluency and gravity of economy. It is a very successful economy. New entrants have already entered the market but they have focused more on niche products. They have not initially started with the global comprehensive retail banking offering but they have either offered current account payments and lending, including mortgages. That will continue, I believe. Ireland is a growing economy with an affluent population. It is very successful in the global economy. I believe Ireland inevitably will attract those investments. I cannot point to any specific cases of organisations that will come in the future but I understand there are a few banking groups from the Continent that are considering coming to Ireland to do certain projects because they feel there is an opportunity for them. That would be the advice.

I would probably not advise any entity to do the holistic retail banking, similar to what KBCI has been doing. The main reason for that is that it requires extremely high and ongoing investment. That complexity of universal banking requires a large number of customers to support that cost. Without a large number of customers, inevitably you end up in a situation where costs are not equal to revenues and then the cost of capital goes up. That would be my advice. For universal banks, Ireland is in a position which is quite standard. I believe more new entrants will come into the market, including Fintechs and other niche players.