Irish banking apps are a source of endless frustration to customers, even in the absence of periodic service disruptions. <\/p>\n
But Bank of Ireland\u2019s<\/a> has come in for particular stick, described, for example, over the summer by comparison website Bonkers.ie as feeling \u201cdated\u201d and \u201cclunky\u201d \u2013 and lagging behind that of AIB\u2019s<\/a> \u201cby no means perfect\u201d offering. <\/p>\n The app was the most visible customer-facing outcome of the \u20ac1.15 billion technology investment programme that ran between 2016 and 2021. But even various subsequent app upgrades \u2013 including spending alerts and improvements in how customers can manage new statements \u2013 have left a lot be desired. <\/p>\n It may come as a surprise, therefore, that Bank of Ireland\u2019s technology has been listed by Autonomous, the international financial sector research firm (owned by AllianceBernstein), as up there with the best in Europe. <\/p>\n Autonomous said in the 8th annual edition of its ranking of technology in retail banks that Bank of Ireland is now in the \u201cwinners\u2019 quadrant this year\u201d, in a list otherwise dominated by UK, Austrian and Benelux banks. <\/p>\n The ranking is based of hundreds of variables drawn from an in depth survey of individual banks, market data, banks financial and public sources, Autonomous said. <\/p>\n Strangely, AIB, which would be widely viewed by analysts to have been a more consistent spender on IT than its rival over the past two decades, has languished in Autonomous\u2019s \u201crelative laggards\u201d column among 30 banks studied for the report. <\/p>\n