Advisors.ie

Something occurred to me recently, it’s that state controlled AIB have too many distribution channels. There is AIB branches, AIB direct and online, AIB for brokers, then EBS both broker owned and direct and finally a soon to be revamped sub-group called ‘Haven Homeloans’. No matter who you make an application to the actual underwriting of the loan (the criteria of whether you get it or not) will be identical. That to me screams out ‘centralization’ or at least not a replication of the same department several times over for different distribution channels. What is most likely to occur? They will probably mimic Bank of Ireland and simply have the main brand and another, but which one? And if the criteria is identical why would anybody choose ‘Option B’. This means there will likely be some different prices (as there already is), but I suspect they will try to make loans through brokers more expensive as Bank of Ireland have via ICS. The normal claim is that ‘it costs us more’, even though I have seen and heard credible professional opinions to the contrary. Either way, keep an eye on AIB, they are set to make some of these changes soon, they can’t justify all of that replication of work at the tax payers expense for long.