Trading name Danske Bank UK Products Commercial Banking Founded 1824, Belfast | Industry Financial services Headquarters Belfast Parent organizations Danske Bank, Midland Bank | |
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Type Private limited company Area served Northern Ireland and UK (previously also served Republic of Ireland) Key people Lars Morch (Chairman)
Kevin Kingston (CEO)
Shaun McAnee (MD Corporate Banking)
Richard Caldwell (MD Personal Banking) CEO Kevin Kingston (Nov 2015–) Profiles | ||
Danske Bank (formerly Northern Bank) is a commercial bank in Northern Ireland. Northern Bank was one of the oldest banks in Ireland having been formed in 1809, and formed part of one of the Big Four banks in Ireland. Northern Bank took on the name of its parent company Danske Bank as its trading name in November 2012. The bank is considered one of the leading retail banks in Northern Ireland with 46 branches and four finance centres. Danske Bank is one of the four commercial banks in Northern Ireland which are permitted to issue their own banknotes.
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History
Northern Bank was founded in Belfast in 1809 as the Northern Banking Partnership. The bank expanded across Ireland, opening its first branch in the south in 1840.
In 1965, the Northern Banking Company Limited was acquired by the Midland Bank, a London-based bank which had acquired the Belfast Banking Company in 1917. In 1970, the Midland's two Northern Ireland subsidiaries were merged to form Northern Bank Limited. Under Midland's ownership, Northern Bank shared its parent company's branding and the Griffin logo.
In 1986, Midland re-organised its British and Irish operations, and as part of this process it separated its Northern Bank branches in the Republic of Ireland and transferred into a newly formed company called Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited.
Acquisition by National Australia Bank
Midland Bank ran into severe financial difficulty as a result of its 1981 acquisition of Crocker National Bank in the USA and was forced to divest itself of assets to restore stability. In 1988, Midland sold off its subsidiaries, namely the Clydesdale Bank in Scotland, Northern Bank Limited and Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited, all of which were acquired by National Australia Bank. After this, Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited was renamed National Irish Bank. The Northern Bank brand name continued in Northern Ireland, but a new logo was introduced, a stylised "N" in a hexagon shape. In 2002, the bank's logotype (the word "Northern") was changed to match that of the National Australia Bank.
Acquisition by Danske Bank
In December 2004, the Denmark-based Danske Bank Group agreed to acquire Northern Bank and National Irish Bank for £967m. The sale of the two banks marked National Australia Bank's exit from the Irish banking markets. Don Price remained as CEO, but was later replaced by Gerry Mallon in June 2008. The acquisition was completed in 2005 and Danske Bank invested approximately £100m in Northern Bank. As part of this process, National Irish Bank was separated from the Northern Bank and given its own dedicated management team. Both Northern & National Irish Bank also migrated over to Danske Bank's technology platform with a centralised contact centre set up to deal with all incoming calls to the branches of both banks. From April 2006 the two banks also adopted new corporate identities which were based on a variation of the Danske Bank logo.
On 1 June 2012, brand separation between Northern Bank and National Irish Bank was also reversed, with the two banks merged under the Northern Bank management team. On 19 November 2012 the bank formally dropped its Northern Bank name and began trading as Danske Bank. The first Danish branding was unveiled with new signage at the company's head office in Donegall Square. Since the rebrand, cheques issued by the bank bear the legend "Danske Bank is a trading name of Northern Bank Limited". Danske Bank continues to issue pound sterling banknotes in Northern Ireland, and notes issued since 2013 now bear the Danske Bank brand name.
In 2008, Northern Bank embarked on a £3m investment programme to upgrade facilities at three of its Northern Ireland branches.
Organisational structure and leadership
Gerry Mallon was CEO from 2008 to November 2015. Under his leadership, and after the global financial crisis, Danske Bank posted its first pre-tax profit in over six years for 2013 and have continued to record quarterly profits since then, in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
As of November 2015, Kevin Kingston is CEO of Danske Bank UK, having previously been Deputy CEO.
Shaun McAnee is Managing Director of Corporate Banking with responsibility for corporate banking, markets, specialist business, regional finance centres, agribusiness and business acquisition. Richard Caldwell is Managing Director of Personal Banking incorporating branches, mortgage business, wealth and small business.
Senior executives include Paul Black, Nigel McMahon, Stephen Matchett, Vicky Davies, Stephen Bloomfield, Brian Telford and Nicola McCleery.
Robbery
On 20 December 2004 the cash centre at the bank's headquarters in Belfast was raided, and £26.5 million stolen. Most of this consisted of uncirculated Northern Bank notes, as well as millions in used notes. There was also over a million pounds in other currencies. The police and government as well as other major political figures in both Ireland and the United Kingdom accused the Provisional Irish Republican Army of being responsible.
On 9 October 2008 the trial of the only man to be charged with the robbery collapsed when Chris Ward, 26, was found not guilty.