Annual Report & Accounts 1999 - Anglo Irish Bank

14
In the coming year, our U.K. operations will be expanded with the addition of offices in
Birmingham and Glasgow to add to the existing teams in London, Banbury and Manchester.
By selectively opening new offices we will strengthen our ability to service our regional clients
as we have done in Ireland, but we will continue to avoid the cost burden of having an
extensive branch network.
Having worked with our clients through the last recessions in Ireland and the U.K., we are
cognisant of the risks attached to any downturn in activity and continue to make a full 1% general
bad debt provision, in addition to prudent specific provisions for any non-performing loans.
Treasury Operations
As well as providing foreign currency, interest rate and derivative products to our international
and domestic corporate and banking clients, the overall strategy for the Treasury division is to
provide appropriate funding for group lending whilst developing a profit stream from diversified
sources of business.
In the financial year just ended,Treasury faced the twin challenges of funding the growth of the
Bank’s loan book and managing the changes in the foreign currency and interest rates markets
arising from Ireland’s entry into the Economic and Monetary Union.
I am very happy to report that the division met these challenges: -
the deposit base was expanded by IR£1.7 billion to IR£5.6 billion, and
on the corporate foreign exchange and interest management products side,Treasury
had another record year, due in part to the significant investment in additional staff and
systems over the last three years. From our state of the art dealing room in Dublin we
are able to service our clients’ needs wherever they are located and whatever timezone
they are operating in.
The investment in people and systems in the areas of private banking, trade finance,
investment and fund management services and in our overseas offices in Austria and the Isle
of Man has borne fruit and we are confident that these areas will continue to make significant
contributions to the Bank going forward.We are currently investing in other allied areas that
will provide new income streams over the next three years.
Risk Management
We continue to devote significant management resources to our risk management division
and look to continually improve our credit assessment policies and procedures.This has stood
the Bank in good stead over the last fourteen years. However, this is a process that must
always be forward looking, and in the year just ended we further enhanced our systems and
modelling capabilities to assist in the risk management process. On the Treasury side we are
operating sophisticated risk management systems that are at the cutting edge of industry best
practice.This enables our Treasury team offer and also respond to client demands for more
sophisticated products in a manner which does not expose the Bank to unforeseen downsides.