Dr. Colin Hunt:

Personally, I regret Ulster Bank and KBC leaving. It is bad for the industry. Certainly, I regret their decisions, although I understand them. We should be conscious that competition now comes in multiple forms. There are, for example, fintechs, new banks and other international players that target specific parts of the banking landscape, such as credit cards, mortgages and business lending. It remains a competitive environment. The focus of all the team here at AIB is on ensuring that the bank is as efficiently run as possible, with as comprehensive a suite of products as possible, to make sure that our products are competitive and attractive to our customers. I cannot be accountable for what happens elsewhere.

I would emphasise the fact that competition in the banking sector is evolving and is coming in non-traditional forms. The old high street or main street bricks and mortar retail banks may be diminishing in terms of number, but the competition we face is coming in new and evolving forms.