Keane must be seen to deliver

Bank of Ireland released its annual figures with a flourish this week, unlike the surreptitious performance by its rival, National Irish Bank, with its interim figures a week earlier. Maurice Keane and his team predictably noted a record performance by the group over the year, with profits up £62 million (€78.7 million) to £720 million.

While good news is always welcome, it is hardly news that a bank can make record profits at a time when people are borrowing and spending as if there is no tomorrow. It would have been news indeed if that bank had failed to hit new heights.

Of far greater import are the bank's plans for the future, especially given its somewhat lacklustre performance in recent times. Its business is more concentrated in Ireland than it or analysts would like and its efforts to achieve a wider footprint have come to naught, most recently in the collapse of the controversial proposed deal with Britain's Alliance & Leicester.

The vague and aspirational Internet policy at this point looks more like an effort to be seen to be playing the game rather than any serious effort to address one of the challenges to traditional banking.

And the plan to chip €65 million off costs is less credible when you realise that the 6 per cent of cost base with which this equates is below the 10 per cent rise in operational costs last year alone. On the surface, that is hardly a comparison to convince one that the bank is addressing the cost issue with the required determination.

Still, at least Maurice still has his job, which is more than can be said for his opposite number in Alliance & Leicester who paid the price for his failure. If he wants to keep it, he may need to deliver in the eyes of the markets, which immediately knocked close to 10 per cent off the bank's valuation after the lacklustre performance.