Danske Bank (Northern Ireland)

Northern Bank Limited
trading as Danske Bank

The Danske Bank logo
Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast, prior to the Danske Bank rebrand
Trading name	Danske Bank
Type	Private limited company
Industry	Financial services
Founded	Belfast, Ireland (1824)
Headquarters	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Area served	Northern Ireland, UK
Key people	Thomas F. Borgen (Chairman) Gerry Mallon (Chief executive)
Products	Banking
Parent	Danske Bank A/S
Website	www.danskebank.co.uk

Danske Bank (formerly Northern Bank) is a commercial bank in Northern Ireland. It is one of the oldest banks in Ireland having been formed in 1809, and formed part of one of the Big Four banks in Ireland.^[1] The Northern Bank took on Danske Bank as its trading name in November 2012 after its parent company decided to brand itself in Northern Ireland.^[2] The bank is considered one of the leading retail banks in Northern Ireland with 82 branches and four finance centres.^[3] Danske Bank is one of the four commercial banks in Northern Ireland which are permitted to issue their own banknotes.

History

The company 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.^[4]

In 1970, the Northern Banking Company Limited amalgamated with the Belfast Banking Company Limited to form Northern Bank Limited.

Until 1988, the bank was a subsidiary of the Midland Bank, sharing Midland's branding and the Griffin logo. In 1986, the bank's operations were re-organised when its operations in the Republic of Ireland were separated from its Northern Ireland business into a subsidiary company called Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited.

Acquisition by National Australia Bank

In 1988, both Northern Bank Limited and Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited were acquired by National Australia Bank, after which the operations in Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited were 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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7] On November 19, 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.^[2] 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.^[8]

In 2008, Northern Bank embarked on a £3m investment programme to upgrade facilities at three of its Northern Ireland branches.^[9]

Banknotes

A £10 note bearing the Danske Bank branding issued in 2013

A £20 note bearing the old Northern Bank brand name

In common with the other Big Four retail banks of Northern Ireland, Danske Bank retains the right to issue its own banknotes, a practice which was abolished in England and Wales in the early Twentieth Century. Danske Bank notes are pound sterling notes and equal in value to Bank of England notes and should not be confused with banknotes of the former Irish pound, a separate currency which was replaced by the Euro in the Republic of Ireland in 2002; nor should Danske Bank notes be confused with banknotes of the Danish Krone issued by the Danish National Bank, in spite of the Danish name of the issuing bank.

Following the acquisition of Northern Bank by Danske Bank, banknotes issued since June 2013 now bear Danske Bank branding in place of the Northern Bank name; otherwise the designs remain identical to the previous issue. Older banknotes bearing the Northern Bank name are still in circulation and continue to be acceptable for payments as they are gradually withdrawn. Danske Bank has also ceased issue of £50 and £100 notes and will in future only print £10 and £20 notes.^[10][11]

Danske Bank does not issue £5 notes, but a special commemorative £5 note was issued by the Northern Bank to mark the Year 2000. Uniquely among sterling notes, this was a polymer banknote, printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) on Australia synthetic polymer substrate instead of paper, making Northern Ireland the only part of the UK to have issued a plastic banknote. It is the only one of the bank's pre-2004 notes still in circulation; all others were recalled following the 2004 robbery.

As promissory notes, the current issue of the banknotes bear the inscription below the Danske Bank logo, "a trading name of Northern Bank Limited which promises to pay the bearer on demand", followed by the monetary value of the note.^[11] Most Northern Bank banknotes feature an illustration on the reverse side of the portico of Belfast City Hall, sculpted by F. W. Pomeroy. The front of most notes depict a range of notable people associated with industry in Northern Ireland. The designs currently in circulation are:

2005 reissue

An old design £20 Northern Bank note withdrawn in 2005

Following the £26.5 million robbery in 2004 (see below), Northern Bank announced on 7 January 2005 that all its notes were to be recalled and reissued in revised designs and using an updated Northern Bank logo. The reissue began on 14 March 2005 and was scheduled to take one month; old notes remain exchangeable at branches of Northern Bank.^[13] The principal colours of Northern Bank notes of greater than £5 face value were changed with the 2005 reissue, and are now as follows (former colour in brackets):

The 'N' monogram logo displayed on these notes was later replaced with a new Northern Bank logo.

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.^[14]

References

• "Tracker rate reduction from Northern Bank (NI)". moneyfacts.co.uk. 2010-10-03. Retrieved 2013-04-28. 
• Kingston, Kevin (2010-04-30). "Time to focus on reshaping economy". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 2013-04-28. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Northern Bank.

• Official website
• "Current Banknotes: Danske Bank". The Association of Commercial Banknote Issuers. Retrieved 30 November 2013.