(As mentioned, our own two, ACC and ICC, were sold off to foreign concerns at the turn of the millennium.) But the crisis and the sweeping failure of privately-owned banks has reignited the debate. One of the success stories is the German Government’s KfW.
Perhaps through the current interaction between the Irish Government and KfW we will learn, in a hands-on way, more of what it takes to make a Government-owned development bank a success. Back to the future? Was there a golden age of Irish banking that we should hanker after? Probably not.