Ms Debbie Byrne:

Avantcard, based in Carrick-on-Shannon. It was formerly MBNA. It deals with loans and credit cards for us and we rely on its systems and expertise, as well as our in-house team which we formed from people who have worked in all the major banks. We have a team of 12 people who came from AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB. The expertise in credit risk lies with the partners. We are involved in lending, which we launched in March this year and which is going well at the moment. The committee members will have seen the advertising.

We have also signed a deal in the small and medium-sized enterprise, SME, lending space and will be bringing a service to market early next year.