Just a week before the Northern Rock crisis, Anglo, which has been in the UK savings market since 2004 and won several awards for its savings products, launched a 6.9% one-year fixed-rate UK savings bond, trumping its rivals in the UK market . . . including West Bromwich building society, which had just raised its bond rate to 6.86% . . . and putting it front of mind for the price-conscious British depositor looking for a safe home for whatever money they rescued from the feared Northern Rock collapse.

"We'd be positive that we'll be a beneficiary as savers look around for a safe haven, " Anglo director of corporate and retail treasury Peter Fitzgerald told the Sunday Tribune.

"We will see an increase in enquiries when customers settle down and take the next step."

Fitzgerald said his bank hadn't seen an uptick in business yet, but that it would be a matter of weeks before the Northern Rock money turned up in other institutions. He said Anglo was seen as a "stalwart" in the market and its "consistency" would win it favourable attention.

"Problems in the UK market will be a strength . . . our track record will stand to us, " he said. "The situation has moved away from a crisis to 'what are you going to do now?'."

More UK business would be a boon to Anglo, which Fitzgerald said is experiencing a slowdown in deposit growth at home in Ireland. Although Anglo boasts a 15% share of the 60bn Irish savings market, it has attracted the same amount of funds . . . 8bn . . .

in the UK in just four years. The UK savings and investments market stands at about �750bn, of which �300bn is cash deposits.

"We haven't even scratched the surface and it's taken four years of fast-paced growth to get there, " Fitzgerald said.

Despite the hammering Irish banks . . . including Anglo . . . have taken in the stock market in the wake of the Northern Rock fiasco, analysts and bankers agree they're stable and not at risk from the kind of liquidity problems that UK counterpart has experienced.

Of all the Irish banks, Anglo is least exposed to wholesale funding . . . drawing only 36% from that source . . . which puts it in an enviable condition in the context of distressed credit markets. It's one of the reasons Anglo feels confident it can capitalise on jitters in US investment banking to massively grow its lending business in America from 5.9bn today to nearly 15bn in five years.

It is also a net lender to the interbank market, according to Davy's, putting it in a nice position to capitalise on the very wide credit spreads that crunched Northern Rock so badly.

Meanwhile, Dublin banking analysts remained bullish on Irish financials throughout the week.

"Banks here aren't going to the interbanks looking for funding - all the banks are funded through the end of the year, " said one stock analyst.

Eamon Hughes of Goodbody said the market was pricing a recession into bank valuations, but that this was probably an over-reaction. "The economy is like a supertanker . . . it doesn't turn in a flash."

He did say, however, that although guidance through 2007 remained unchanged, there were few clues on next year's momentum.

The next key data event is Bank of Ireland's interim trading update on Tuesday. The bank is expected to leave its positive guidance unchanged.