Mr. Patrick Farrell:

We cannot guarantee anyone in that regard and the customer would have to go through a credit assessment. That is a requirement. Nevertheless, there is no waiting time. Customers can either come into a branch, go through a credit assessment and give us their financial details, or they can even apply online and we will contact them to obtain and verify their financial details in order that we can then make a credit decision. We will also make some changes in midsummer whereby customers will be able to apply online and get an approval in principle, and they will then be able to upload their documents.

So if customers come from Ulster Bank then they will be able to rely on their Ulster Bank performance and credit history as opposed to the situation in the past whereby when a customer joined a new bank then he or she would need to create a credit history with the new bank. There is no waiting time. We are trying to facilitate all customers who have a requirement for a credit card, an overdraft or a personal loan. We want that business and we want to help people to move that business across to us. Obviously we must make sure that the product is suitable for the customer. We must go through a proper credit assessment to make sure that that suitability is there.