Ireland’s Banking System – Looking Forward

Abstract

This paper discusses the medium- to long-term perspectives for the Irish banking system. Consistent with the finance-growth literature, financial deepening had a limited impact on growth in Ireland before the crisis and cannot be expected to contribute significantly over the short to medium term. The paper documents that, compared to its benchmark, the Irish banking system is still very unbalanced, with a heavy reliance on international funding, and limited competition. Given its membership in the Eurozone and the EU, Ireland depends very much on global and European regulatory reform trends, some of which are more important for Ireland than other European economies. Critically, the shape and resilience of Irish banking will depend on the shape the Eurozone banking union will take.