Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Business of Joint Committee
Matters Relating to the Banking Sector: Ulster Bank

1:30 pm

Mr. Paul Stanley:

Can I address that point because it keeps coming up? The €1.5 billion in dividend we paid to RBS is because we have the highest capital ratio of any of the retail banks in this country. It is over 30%. It actually costs the bank money in terms of the returns we get on that capital and, ultimately, that has to be paid for. It makes perfect sense for us to pay those dividends back to the parent. We have become a far more efficient bank. It has nothing to do with branch closures or other actions.