Peadar Tóibín
Question:51. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Finance if all existing banks here have a full and valid banking licence. [10077/19]
View answerThursday, 28 February 2019
Questions (51, 52, 53)
Peadar Tóibín
Question:52. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Finance if all loans existent here in the hands of commercial banks were issued with complete banking licences. [10078/19]
View answerPeadar Tóibín
Question:53. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Finance if a company (details supplied) was a holder of a banking licence for its full existence. [10079/19]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 51 to 53, inclusive, together.
I am advised by the Central Bank that there are currently 480 entity types registered as Credit Institutions. A Credit Institution means:
(a) an undertaking whose business is to receive deposits or other repayable funds from the public and to grant credits for its own account, or
(b) an electronic money institution.
The register can be viewed on the Central Bank of Ireland website. Further details are included below.
In addition, to carry out banking business a banking licence is required and all banks have received the necessary approvals from the Central Bank.
Being granted a banking licence authorisation in one Member State opens the possibility that a credit institution can passport throughout the rest of the European Union without the need to establish a subsidiary in another Member State.
Passporting can be effected through either the establishment of a branch in another Member State (subject to notifying the home member state) or by the provision of services in another Member State (i.e. services are provided in another Member State but no physical presence is established in that State), also subject to notification requirements.
In accordance with Article 35 of the Capital Requirements Directive 2013/36/EC (CRD IV) any EEA credit institution wishing to exercise the freedom to provide services within another EEA Member State by establishing a branch shall notify the competent authorities of the home Member State of their intention to do so.
In accordance with Article 39 of CRD IV any EEA credit institution wishing to exercise the freedom to provide services on a cross border basis within another EEA Member State shall notify the competent authorities of the home Member State of their intention to do so.
The Central Bank also informs me that where an entity is operating as a bank, it is then required to hold a banking licence and therefore if it issues a loan as a bank it will have a banking licence. However, it is possible that loans currently on a bank's balance sheet may not have been issued by them originally as they could have bought the loan from another entity, which may not have been a bank when the loan was issued.
With specific regard to KBC Bank Ireland plc, this is a public limited company incorporated in Ireland under the Companies Acts 1963 to 2006 (no. 40537) on 14 February 1973 under the name Irish Inter-Continental Holdings Limited. On 25 April 1973, it changed its name to Irish Intercontinental Bank Limited. On 10 January 2000, it changed its name to IIB Bank Limited. On 29 March 2006, it re-registered as a public limited company under the name IIB Bank plc. On 24 October 2008, it changed its name to KBC Bank Ireland plc. The Transferee carries on a banking business in Ireland from its registered office at Sandwith Street, Dublin 2 and is the holder of a licence in relation thereto granted on 17 May 1973 under Section 9 of the Central Bank Act 1971.
Link to Financial Service Providers Register: http://registers.centralbank.ie/FirmSearchPage.aspx.