The arrival of Bank of Scotland in the Irish mortgage market has been a breath of fresh air to a domestic home loan industry that had become complacent and bloated by the obscenely high margins that the main lenders took on their mortgage lending.
Low-cost telephone selling and innovative marketing were the hallmarks of the Bank of Scotland's operation, compared to the high-cost, branch-based lending and tedious marketing that characterised the main Irish mortgage lenders.
Complacency left the Irish lenders open to the Bank of Scotland challenge, and one hopes the Scots have carved out enough business to make sure that they stay in the mortgage market.
That said, Current Account believes that Bank of Scotland is being disingenuous when it talks about approving more than £600 million (€762 million) worth of mortgages in its first six months' business.
Mortgage approvals is an irrelevant figure, what matters is what Bank of Scotland actually ends up lending to house buyers.
It's a reasonable assumption that a good portion of those mortgage approvals related to people who get their approval from Bank of Scotland and then went back to their existing lender threatening to take their mortgage to the Scots unless they got a better deal.
Bank of Scotland has now conceded defeat in the battle of the Scots banks for control of Natwest, which presumably means that Natwest's plans to sell Ulster Bank will be abandoned.
That, of course, will be good news for the Ulster employees who made no secret of their distaste for being sold to the likes of Irish Life & Permanent and indicated their approval for RBS's decision to retain the bank.
For Irish Life, which had made its interest in Ulster Bank extremely clear the outcome of the Natwest bidding is a severe blow to David Went's expansion plans. Now, the speculation is where the Irish Life boss will direct his attention with Ulster Bank being taken off the block.
Will Irish Life now turn its attention to First Active, where many believe that the resignation of John Smyth with no immediate replacement installed is an effective "for sale" sign?
A slimmed down First Active might be an attractive target, especially given the level of its share price.
