Irish Nationwide: doomed

The death knell for Irish Nationwide Building Society was signalled again last week after a doubling of the amount of cash it needs from the taxpayer to €5.4bn.

But Irish Nationwide is still at an advanced stage of launching 'Project SAM' to turn itself into a savings, mortgage and investment product specialist.

The Sunday Tribune has learned Irish Nationwide has appointed John Kelly, former head of mortgage brokerage at Bank of Scotland Ireland, to drive the building society's transformation. The move to embrace mortgage brokers – not a traditional sales channel for Irish Nationwide – signals a change in strategy which has implications for the future of its 49-branch retail network.

If Kelly can slash the fixed costs associated with the branches and start building on the mutual's €2.5bn mortgage book by selling more cheaply through brokers, there might yet be some slim chance INBS has a future – at least as an attractive addition to another financial institution.