The best part of my job is being able to work on innovative sustainability initiatives that impact the most critical challenges facing our customers, colleagues and society. That really drives and encourages me. 

I really enjoyed working on our second sustainability report which we launched on April 28^th. The report provides a central source for the Group’s sustainability reporting and provides our stakeholders with an in-depth appraisal of our sustainability performance to date and our ambitions for the future.

It also demonstrates the progress we have made on our sustainability strategy across our three sustainability pillars; Supporting the Green Transition, Enhancing Financial Wellbeing and Enabling Colleagues to Thrive. 

The banking sector is crucial to the economy.  At Bank of Ireland, we recognise the major role and responsibility that we have as Ireland’s National Champion bank and are mindful of our 240 year heritage in supporting the economy. We are guided by our purpose to help customers, colleagues, shareholders and societies to thrive. From a sustainability perspective, we have a key role to play in providing the right supports to our customers and helping to decarbonise key sectors of the economy. In this context, we have raised our sustainability-related finance targets from c.€8 billion in 2022 to €15 billion by 2025 and €30 billion by 2030. We are also partnering with key sectors of the economy to help finance their net zero transitions. One example is within the agriculture sector where we announced a partnership with Kerry Dairy Ireland, providing funding for sustainable farming improvements for their milk suppliers.

The financial services sector and in particular the banking sector is crucial to the functioning of the economy, safeguarding assets and providing credit to people and businesses.

Yes. For example, in retail banking, we continue to roll out a number of digital supports to make life easier for our customers. We are delivering more digital and tailored touchpoints across our businesses and providing simpler, more effective servicing which improves the financial wellbeing of our customers. One very practical product we recently launched is Money Insights 365 (Mi365) which provides customers with in-app personalised insights and tailored nudges based on their spending behaviour. It provides cash flow insights and highlights potential issues such as an increase in bills or subscription costs, or a low account balance. Over 2.7 million insights have been accessed by customers since it was launched last September to help customers track and control their spending.

It feels great - working on projects that enhance our customers lives and makes things easier for them are so important. For example, we are number 1 for financial wellbeing in Ireland and we are continuing to hardwire financial wellbeing into how we think about our customers’ needs across all our products and services. We have delivered successful financial literacy programmes to 418,000 students across both Irish primary and secondary schools since 2017 and this is something I am very proud of. 

I think the financial services sector has learnt a lot from other sectors in recent years particularly when it comes to technology and digital and we continue to make things easier and simpler for our customers. I think it’s important to look at other sectors and how people do things differently to ensure diversity of thought in the financial services sector. 

We have a very progressive company culture at Bank of Ireland. Almost three-quarters of colleagues are now working in a hybrid way and the bank is supporting them through a range of new and enhanced people policies including paternity, fertility, menopause and surrogacy supports to name just a few. 

It’s a great sector to be part of, in particular the work we are doing in sustainability, although I am somewhat biased here! ESG is an evolving area with many exciting opportunities to make a real impact for generations to come. 

At Bank of Ireland we implemented our sustainability strategy in 2021 called ‘Investing in Tomorrow’ and our ethos is centred around making a positive contribution today whilst also investing in the future. By doing this, we deliver against the most critical challenges facing our customers, colleagues and society.