Full coverage: Banking

Having risen to the top at Deutsche Bank, Fiona Gallagher came home to Dublin and runs Wells Fargo’s European business. From a deserted IFSC, she expects the Covid-19 crisis to leave its mark on office life, young people and urban planning – but she is not worried about banks’ financial health.

Bill Barrett, who was buried last week, was a key player in building Anglo Irish Bank until his retirement in 2002. Many are in his debt for his assistance at crucial times in their business lives.

Last Wednesday was the funeral of a great Irish-American whose story is little known. An investment banker who was near the top of the legendary Allen & Co, Walter O'Hara Jr was a champion of American investment in Ireland who had many links to here.

Hugo MacNeill is hoping that his sporting and charitable exploits will aid his Seanad election bid. But he also knows his association with Goldman Sachs comes with its own baggage. He talks frankly to Sam Smyth.

Irish banks should embrace the trend toward higher degree of automation in management of clients' services and accounts, opening up the sector to fintech solutions rather than waiting for them to eat the banks' lunch.

Led by Germany, core EU countries are preparing to tax equity trading. Yet research shows that to reinforce financial stability, policy should instead encourage equity investment and tax debt.

Former minister and MEP Brian Hayes has bowed out of politics, preferring a new challenge as chief executive of the Irish Banking and Payments Federation. He talks about his transition to the private sector, fintech, the future of Irish banking and the long shadow cast by the recession.

The comments by the head of KBC Bank Ireland’s Belgian parent on tracker mortgages highlighted yet again the lack of cultural change at the upper echelons of banking. Indeed, the actions of the banks give lie to the chatter of cultural rehabilitation.

The financial performance of the Irish banks has been abysmal. Not for the lack of profit margins, but due to strategic decisions to withdraw from lending in the potential growth segments of the domestic and European economies.

This week, Prepaid Financial Services announced it is to be sold to Australia’s EML Payments for up to €327 million. Sean Keyes met with the founders Noel Moran and his wife Valerie, who started the company in 2007 and could walk away with €266 million.