Danske Bank remains an organisation with a deep history across two centuries.
Still Northern Bank behind the surface, the bank has traded as Danske Bank for over a decade but has always remained a local organisation firmly rooted in Northern Ireland.
It continues to have its own locally based chief executive, executive committee and independent board.
It’s also a bank which is developing leading digital services to help both business and personal customers with their financial journeys.
It’s embracing the latest technology, utilising artificial intelligence (AI) and looking ahead to investing in the next generation of cloud computing to improve the experiences of all its customers.
It continues to work with many of Northern Ireland’s longest-established giants of industry, as well as burgeoning new businesses here across growing sectors.
“We bank around 50% of the Top 100 locally managed Northern Ireland businesses,” Shaun McAnee says.
“We have around 40,000 business customers, and for many years have held a leading position in the marketplace across multiple fronts.”
This year alone it’s supported the Northern Ireland business community with more than £500m in business lending approvals.
“Danske Bank remains a local bank – we are all based here. During my time at the bank, we have been fortunate to have had a succession of strong local chief executives, and executive teams that have positioned us firmly as the leading bank for business.”
“My corporate and business banking teams are totally focused on supporting businesses in Northern Ireland of all sizes, from micro businesses to SMEs and up to the largest corporates.” Shaun says.
Danske has a team of around 80 locally based business relationship managers, supported by 30 product specialists, alongside 24 branches and a Business Direct team in their award winning local contact centre based in Dunmurry.
The digital element though is an increasingly important part of Danske Bank’s offering, with, for example, more than 80% of personal customers using its digital platforms.
“This is a bank formed 200 years ago by local businesspeople for local businesspeople,” he says. “And we still have many business customers who have been with us for generations. Our 200-year history gives us such a strong platform to build from, but now it is all about ensuring we are fit for the future”, Shaun says.
Danske Bank is a banking partner for many local household names, such as the pharma giants Norbook and Almac, IT services business Kainos, Belfast Harbour and Belfast International Airport.
“We support businesses with both their working capital needs and long-term investments, acting as a key enabler of growth in terms of helping customers facilitate business expansion and job creation – both here and internationally,” Shaun says.
“We also have people on the ground who are specialists across areas such as foreign exchange markets, asset finance, invoice finance, trade finance, cash management and sustainability planning, for example. They’re all local people, and they can be deployed to help our customers.”
Danske Bank has focused its efforts on ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction and prides itself on acting on customer feedback – which also means reacting to increasing expectations on the digital front.
Turning to technology and digital transformation, Liam Curran is the man tasked with heading up the bank’s technology and digital development unit, which employs around 140 people locally.
Within this area, are a host of skilled and experienced data scientists, analytics engineers, software engineers, robotics developers, project managers and IT specialists.
“In terms of technology, we offer the best of both worlds,” Liam says. “We benefit from the strength of the technology we get from the Danske Bank Group and the security around that, as well as being able to develop locally. We, and they, have exciting plans which will see us continue to invest heavily in technology”, he says.
“This year there has been a strong focus on the data side, allowing us to improve digital engagement and better personalise our interactions with customers. Looking ahead, in addition to continuing to build on our data platform, we will further invest in new solutions that are powered by AI. This along with our other digitisation plans will make banking easier and enable more proactive support for our customers.”
Shaun says the bank’s digital offering is “more important than ever”.
“For example, smaller businesses are now becoming much more reliant on banking technology to make their lives easier,” he says.
“Customers no longer just want to interact with us nine to five, but 24/7.”
Advancing technologies are also helping the bank become more efficient in terms of its internal processes.
“We’ve been very much focused on trying to create efficiencies for our colleagues, so that we can free them up to spend more time with customers,” Liam says.
“In the past three years, we have removed over 200,000 hours of bank colleague time on admin tasks through automation and digitisation. We are also now utilising around 100 robots across the bank.
“And, in terms of AI, we recently launched our own Danske Bank GPT platform – which hundreds of colleagues here in Northern Ireland are actively using to help them in their roles.”
Digital onboarding processes have helped aid mass acquisition of new customers this year. Over 13,000 new personal current accounts, and over 1,000 new small business accounts, have been opened with the bank in 2024.
Danske Bank’s bespoke digital platform for business customers is called District and was introduced by the Danske Bank Group. Liam says it remains “market leading” across the local market.
“It’s highly customisable for each individual business’s needs,” he says.
You just need to take a look at the figures to see how customers are transitioning to the digital banking environment.
Just three years ago, 20% of the bank’s products and services were provided digitally. That figure now stands at more than 60% and is set to rise markedly.
Over 80% of personal loans this year have been applied for digitally, while the vast majority of customers block cards or amend their standing orders themselves digitally.
Looking ahead, technological growth and development will become more vital than ever before to the success of Danske Bank.
“It’s about giving customers that 24/7 access to the bank,” Liam says. “Digital technology is primarily about making banking easier for the customer, putting it in their hands literally, to do what needs done and at a time that suits them.”
Looking to the future, Liam says the Danske Bank Group have a huge focus on further revolutionising their whole technology stack, with the planned introduction of Cloud technologies and new partner platforms.
Shaun says he increasingly sees technology as an “enabler for customers” – but he is quick to point out that for Danske it will always be in addition to having great people on the ground, local leadership and the ability to support customers through its many locally based specialist teams.