RBS 2006 Annual Report Download - page 26

RBS Group • Annual Report and Accounts 2006 25
■Contribution £602 million (2005 – £530 million)
■Total income up 15%
■Operating profit up 20%
Ulster Bank, including First Active, provides an
extensive range of retail and wholesale financial
services for personal and corporate customers
across the island of Ireland, through branches,
business centres, the telephone and the internet.
■Total customer numbers increased by 6% to 1.7 million.
Business customer numbers grew by 6% or 10,000, while
personal customer numbers also grew by 6% or 90,000.
Use of internet and telephone banking increased 47%.
■We opened 80,000 new current accounts in 2006,
following the introduction of transaction fee-free banking
for all retail customers.
■We acquired 18,000 new student customers (9,000
in Northern Ireland and 9,000 in the Republic of Ireland),
representing a 50% increase on 2005. Additional relationships
were established with the two major universities in
Northern Ireland.
■In 2006 we became the No 1 financial institution for
business in Northern Ireland, with 32% of all businesses
classifying Ulster Bank as their main bank.
■We have increased staff numbers by 9% to provide
additional service in our branches and Business Centres.
We have grown our Corporate Markets sales force by 15%
in the last 18 months, with 200 new recruits.
■We continued our £50 million branch improvement
and maintenance programme, transforming an additional
66 branches in 2006. The programme is now 70% complete
and scheduled to finish in 2007.
■We increased the number of our Business Centres,
opened a new bank branch in Midleton, Co. Cork, and
relocated our Donegal and Dundrum branches to larger
premises.
■First Active introduced an offset flexible mortgage that
allows customers to link savings accounts and a current
account to reduce the cost and duration of their mortgage.
Ulster Bank
■We have successfully integrated our banking systems
with the RBS Group IT platform giving us a unique competitive
advantage in Ireland, as well as access to a wider range
of products.
■We won the financing of Belfast’s Titanic Quarter,
one of the largest urban waterfront regeneration projects
in Europe, with a first phase that includes 475 apartments,
a 120-bed hotel and a large office complex.
■Ulster Bank Structured Finance together with the RBS
Power Sector Team successfully structured the funding
of a 59.5 Megawatt windfarm involving 70 wind turbines
situated in a large bogland site in Gort, Co. Galway, for
Gort Windfarms Limited, a subsidiary of ESB.
■In conjunction with RBS Private Placement Group,
Ulster Bank arranged a $150 million Private Placement
providing Bord Na Móna, the Irish state-owned energy
company, with long term funding for the roll-out of its energy,
environmental and waste management business strategy.
■We provided £360 million financing for a group of Irish
investors to buy Fosse Park, a shopping centre outside
Leicester, in the largest single retail property acquisition
in the UK since the late 1990s.
■We have diversified our funding base through
securitisations, issuing Ireland’s largest residential mortgage
securitisation of €3.9 billion and confirming Ulster Bank’s
status as the largest issuer of securitisation bonds to date
in the Irish market.
Selected awards
Business Banking Excellence Award
KPMG
Environmental Management Survey Award
Business in the Community Arena Network
Big Tick Award
Business in the Community
Ability Award
O2
YouthBank Ulster Bank has launched a
network of 30 YouthBanks in partnership
with three national community youth
foundations. This initiative encourages
youngsters to take decisions on which
youth-led community projects to support,
underlining Ulster Bank’s commitment to
its community investment programme
across the island of Ireland.