A small cheer went up as the Anglo Irish Bank name and logo was finally erased from Dublin’s city centre today.

Afternoon shoppers, parents with children and office workers stood to watch as the sign, which had been emblazoned on its St Stephens Green headquarters for more than a decade, was removed shortly after 2pm.

Passing motorists sounded their horns and pedestrians stopped to take photographs as workmen on ladders removed the signage.

The relatively low key occasion marks another step in the wind down of a bank viewed as being at the heart of Ireland’s financial crisis.

A similar scene took place in towns and cities throughout the country as the financial institution prepared to leave the Anglo brand behind.

Anglo chief executive Mike Aynsley described the removal of the signage as a "symbolic".

“It practical and symbolic. We’re changing the name so the name has to come off the front of the building. But symbolic because the organisation is fundamentally a different organisation than what it was,” Mr Aynsley said.

"We’ve spent a lot of time and effort re-engineering the control systems, we’ve taken out the board, we’ve taken out senior management, we’ve taken out layers of management”.

“We don’t focus any more on going out and lending money on property developments and chasing loan growth. Everything we do now is focused on working out these loan portfolios and recovering as much as we can for the taxpayer.”

Mr Aynsley said it was important to draw a line between “the Anglo that created the problems, and the new organisation which is a different group of people under a different management structure and a different board that are charged with getting as much out of this mess as possible.”

Anglo and Irish Nationwide have already begun the process of merging, with both financial institutions transferring their deposits to AIB and Irish Life & Permanent.

It is not yet known what the new name of the merged Irish Nationwide and Anglo will be; Mr Aynsley said it would be the early summer before it is announced.

The name has been approved by the Government, and was now with the Central Bank, he said. However, the new name will not be as visible as Anglo’s was.

“You won’t see the new name outside buildings,” Mr Aynsley said. “That costs money.”

Mr Aynsley said no decision had been made on what to do with the old signage.