First Trust sets out design on the future of banking in NI

The First Trust branch on Main Street in Strabane, Co Tyrone may seem a world away from the red carpet glamour of the recent Grammy Awards. But this year the bank played a supporting role at the awards thanks to its backing of an ambitious young fashion designer from Strabane.

Lynsey McGarrigle dressed one of Sony’s senior executives for the Grammys, a sign that her fashion brand, Haus of MoHawk, had truly arrived. But McGarrigle says that without the initial support of staff at First Trust, she might never have gotten her fledgling business off the ground.

“I’ve grown up with First Trust,” she says. “As a child I banked with them at school and when I was setting up my business it was just natural that I would trust the faces of people that I had known all my life. I had a personal connection with the bank, so I went there.”

When she first brought her plans for Haus of MoHawk to the bank, she fully expected some resistance. In fact, she says she could not have had a better response.

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“They were more than willing to help me,” she says “I had put together my business plan with Enterprise Ireland, and the Strabane branch could not have been more supportive to me. When it came to the business side of things, I could have struggled – I have more than enough energy and passion and love for the creative side of things. But First Trust gave me the practical and business support that I needed.”

Closure letter

So, like many other business owners, McGarrigle was surprised last week when a letter from First Trust arrived at her Strabane studio, informing her that the bank was closing 15 of its branches in Northern Ireland – including the Strabane branch.

“It is an upheaval,” she says, “and the people I feel most for are the staff in the First Trust in Strabane, some of whom I am sure have worked there maybe 20 or 30 years. I had such great support from them – they took part of the burden of setting up the business from me, and it definitely made it a lot simpler with their support. They knew me and I knew them, and they were only too willing to help me.”

McGarrigle’s experience is undoubtedly one that many small business owners who bank with First Trust can relate to: that local connection can make all the difference when it comes to getting the right financial support to help grow a business.

The designer says she will stick with First Trust, even though she will now have to travel from Strabane to Derry, where her account has been relocated, to visit a branch in person.

As part of its restructuring, First Trust has said it will team up with the Northern Ireland Post Office to provide “everyday banking transaction” at 500 outlets. McGarrigle is confident that this and its existing online facilities will help her once her local branch closes.

In the letter sent out last week, First Trust head Des Moore told customers one reason the bank was closing branches was because they simply were not being used as much anymore.

According to the North’s Consumer Council, since 2010 about 30 per cent of bank branches have closed in Northern Ireland. This has led to major job losses in the industry – some 130 staff work in the 15 branches First Trust has earmarked for closure. Their jobs have a question mark hanging over them.

Northern retrenchment

The Financial Services Union is concerned that banking groups will continue to “retrench” in the North, with serious consequences for “employment customer services, local communities, personal business customers and the Northern Ireland economy”.

The FSU says “key decisions” about local banking are being made in Dublin, Edinburgh, London and Copenhagen – in short, anywhere but the North itself.

“There is a clear risk that Northern Ireland will be seen as marginal and peripheral in the plans of the major banking groups, with serious implications for the Northern Ireland economy,” the union has warned.

As Northern Ireland goes to the polls this week, FSU general secretary Larry Broderick says it is the ideal time for political leaders to consider a new approach to the branch network:

“At present, individual institutions can just proceed with closures despite significant opposition from this union, business groups and the local community,” he says.

“Our union has argued that a new structure has to be put in place. That would guarantee that at least one financial institution remains in each town, and that before a branch is closed an analysis of how banking services will be delivered in future is carried out. This would include looking at the potential of options such as post offices and credit unions.”

Broderick adds: “However, despite what some financial institutions claim, transferring services to the post office network is not a panacea. A post office can’t offer all the services that a bank branch can. And also, especially in rural areas, the future of the post office network is far from secure.”