Bank of Ireland is close to launching a debtor financing operation in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands and plans to open five offices in these countries within 12 months, according to a senior Bank of Ireland source. The project will see Bank of Ireland as the first Irish bank to establish a greenfield business banking operation in mainland Europe.
The new subsidiary called Growth Finance Europe, is currently recruiting 30 staff and will be headquartered in Dublin with offices in London and the Leeds/Bradford area in the UK, Dьsseldorf and Stuttgart or Munich in Germany and a still unspecified location in Holland. A senior Bank of Ireland executive has been chosen as chief executive of the new operations. The overseas offices will be staffed locally.