List of Banks in Ireland

The Central Bank of Ireland  is the financial services regulator of Ireland and historically the central bank. The bank was the issuer of Irish pound banknotes and coinage until the introduction of the euro currency, and now provides this service for the European Central Bank.

The bank was founded in 1943 and since 1 January 1972 has been the banker of the Irish Government in accordance with the Central Bank Act 1971[1] which can be seen in legislative terms as completing the long transition from a currency board to a fully functional central bank.[2]

The bank's head office is located on Dame Street, Dublin, where the public may exchange non-current Irish coinage and currency (both pre- and post-decimalization) for euro. This building attracted a lot of criticism, when built in 1980, both for its height and original roofline (in contravention of the planning permission) and for its brash appearance.[3] The Currency Centre at Sandyford is the currency manufacture, warehouse and distribution site of the bank.

 

The Irish economy has transformed since the 1980s from being predominantly agricultural to a modern knowledge economy focused on high technology industries and services. Ireland adopted the euro currency in 2002 along with eleven other EU member states.[60] The country is heavily reliant on Foreign Direct Investment and has attracted several multinational corporations due to a highly educated workforce and a low corporation tax rate. Companies such as Intel invested in Ireland during the late 1980s, later followed by Microsoft and Google. Ireland is ranked as the world’s seventh most economically free economy in the world according to the Index of Economic Freedom. In terms of GDP per capita, Ireland is one of the wealthiest countries in the OECD and EU. However, the country ranks below the OECD average in terms of GNP per capita. GDP is significantly greater than GNP due to the large amount of multinational corporations based in Ireland.[61]

Beginning in the early 1990s, the country experienced unprecedented economic growth fuelled by a dramatic rise in consumer spending, construction and investment, which became known as the Celtic Tiger period. The pace of growth slowed during 2007 and led to the burst of a major property bubble which had developed over time.[62] The dramatic fall in property prices has highlighted the over-exposure of the economy to construction, and has contributed to the ongoing Irish banking crisis. Ireland officially entered a recession in 2008 following consecutive months of economic contraction.[63] The economy contracted by −1.7% in 2008, −7.1% in 2009 and −1% in 2010. The country officially exited recession in 2010, which was helped by a strong growth in exports of 6.9% during the first quarter.[64] However, due to a significant rise in the cost of borrowing and bank recapitalisation, Ireland accepted an €85 billion programme of assistance from the EU, IMF and bilateral loans from the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark.The economy is forecast to grow by 0.9% in 2011 and 2.2% in 2012.
 

List of World Wide Banking Directory