DUBLIN: “Bank of Ireland has been supporting the community of Fermoy since 1903, when we established our branch on Patrick Street. In fact, there has been a continuous banking presence in our Patrick Street location under various guises since 1835. The first branch manager was a William Morrough, a native of Kilworth”, Eilis Mannion, head of Bank of Ireland, Cork tells The Avondhu in a statement outlining the bank’s commitment and service to the locality. “Today our modern branch has the latest banking technology – including self-service devices and computer terminals with online access – to enable our customers to manage their day-to-day banking. We also have a dedicated team of Personal, Business and Agri Banking Advisers to support customers on each stage of their life journey.
“The bank has organised 12 enterprise towns throughout Cork and hosts dozens of events during the year. In Fermoy an Enterprise Town was hosted in October 2016 for the second time. The event brought together local businesses and societies from the area and surrounding villages. We had over 100 exhibitors in the Loreto Secondary School and the event built on the previous year with strong feedback from local businesses, community groups, speakers at the event and the public who came along to support it”, Eilis continued. “The bank also hosted an Accountants Breakfast in January 2017 where local accountants and customers were given a foreign exchange update entitled ‘Market Volatility; Are You Prepared?’ A presentation was given by people from the Banks’s global markets division around market movements, currency analysis and interest rate fluctuations.
“We actively support youth in the county with school banks and BizWorld programmes running as well as Coder Dojo workshops. This included a BizWorld with the local presentation primary school. Part of this was a ‘Dragon’s Den’ event which consisted of seven mini companies and a great learning experience for the children involved. “In May 2017 we held an Agri event in Ballyvolane House as part of National Enterprise Week. The Bank’s Head of Agriculture, John Fitzgerald along with Jerome O’Sullivan, Agri Development Manager South West, gave an update on the dairy sector in Ireland. “We have Ireland’s largest bank branch network and we are proud of our extensive presence and activity with communities across the country”, Eilis concluded.
