Statement from Bank of Ireland on the Irish Banking Culture Board

Monday, 15 April – Bank of Ireland has welcomed the appointment of the Irish Banking Culture Board, and has said that it looks forward to supporting the Board in its important role. The Bank highlighted that the reports published by the IBCB today underline the importance of the work underway to rebuild trust in banking.

Francesca McDonagh, Group CEO of Bank of Ireland, said:

“Bank of Ireland is strongly supporting the establishment of the Irish Banking Culture Board because we recognise that the culture in banking needs to change. An important part of this is listening to people – our customers, our colleagues and our stakeholders – and learning from their open and honest feedback.

“The results of the consultation and survey make for difficult reading. They present insight into the scale of the task we collectively face. But they also underline the importance of the work already underway to transform culture in banking.

“Banking touches every part of Irish life – but is the least trusted sector in Ireland. We are working hard to fix this, and I look forward to engaging with the IBCB in its important work in the years ahead.”

Bank of Ireland’s strategic priorities include transforming its culture, systems, and business model. Over the past 18 months a multifaceted programme to support cultural transformation has been underway. This has included, including:

• The clear articulation of the Bank’s ambition, purpose, values and strategic priorities;
• Ongoing engagement with colleagues, including holding 50 roadshows across the Group with 6,000 participants; and,
• The setting of clear targets for 50:50 gender balance in management and leadership appointments by 2021.

Whilst there is much more work to the done some of the early indications from this programme are positive. Colleague engagement, a key metric for organisational culture, has steadily increased over the last 18 months. The results of internal Bank of Ireland colleague surveys show employee engagement scores improving from 50% in Q4 2017 to 57% in Q1 2019.