When PTSB put itself up for sale in October last year, it finally signalled an end to one of the last remnants of the financial crisis, with the Government approving a move which would ultimately see it exit its majority shareholding position in the bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the banking sector in this country has changed remarkably in that time but the three remaining pillar banks have not always kept pace.<\/p>\n
The announced acquisition of PTSB by Austrian bank BAWAG<\/a> for just over \u20ac1.6bn means the Government will finally be washing its hands of the bank bailouts after nearly two decades. Of the three pillar banks still operating in Ireland, PTSB is the smallest and unlike its two major competitors, it was not able to buy itself out of State ownership and on its own\u00a0\u2014 and was never looking likely to do so.<\/p>\n The Government finalised its divestment from AIB in the summer of last year, when shareholders in the bank voted to buy back the last 2% the State held. The State fully divested from Bank of Ireland in 2022.<\/p>\n In 2011, PTSB received a \u20ac4bn bailout from the State which it has yet to fully repay. The bank paid back about \u20ac2.8bn of that initial bailout \u2014 a large portion of which came from the \u20ac1.3bn sale of its former Irish Life pensions and life assurance unit.<\/p>\n The bank had been making some progress over the last few years. In January 2025, its shares were languishing around \u20ac1.37 before increasing to \u20ac2.30 right before it put itself up for sale. However, news of the sale increased share prices further to the point where BAWAG is now paying \u20ac2.97 per share.<\/p>\n For its 57.5% stake in PTSB, the Government is expected to receive about \u20ac931m as part of BAWAG\u2019s all-cash purchase. Which means the Government will lose about \u20ac270m all these years later.<\/p>\n However, according to finance minister Simon Harris, the Government has made its money back from PTSB if you include a combination of fees, dividend income, the bank levy, and disposal proceeds the State has recovered.<\/p>\n On an overall basis, this means the State is about \u20ac1.3bn above break-even on its \u20ac29.4bn investment in AIB, Bank of Ireland, and PTSB from direct shareholding-linked income and has recovered a further \u20ac1.8bn from the banking sector since the introduction of the bank levy.<\/p>\n While BAWAG\u2019s acquisition of PTSB closes the book on the financial crisis, the sector has changed remarkably since then and the pillar banks have been taking their time adapting. BAWAG may need to adapt PTSB quickly if wants the investment to succeed and have a bank that can compete.<\/p>\n It seems appropriate the announcement of BAWAG\u2019s acquisition of PTSB came on the same day UK digital bank Monzo officially launched in Ireland<\/a>. Monzo might feel its news has been a bit overshadowed by the PTSB announcement, but its entrance into the market does signal that, for the first time in a long time, there may be increasing competition in the Irish banking sector.<\/p>\n Monzo is very popular in the UK, with 15 million personal account users and 800,000 business account users. In the lead-up to its launch, it registered 100,000 people on its waitlist.<\/p>\n The three pillar banks have been laggards when it comes to adopting better features for their customers \u2014 features Revolut and Monzo have offered for years.<\/p>\n