KBC Bank Ireland has launched its first high street retail office in Dublin opening a flagship unit at 142 Lower Baggot Street today.

John Reynolds, CEO, KBC Bank Ireland said that the opening of the Dublin office is the first phase of an expansion programme by KBC which will see the bank invest in new retail locations in a number of cities in Ireland in the coming years. In order to meet increasing customer needs, the bank has added over 100 employees in Ireland in 2012 and the opening of its new retail location is a reflection of the increase in new customers joining the bank.

He said: "We have ambitious plans to grow our business and the opening of our new Dublin retail office is an exciting and important step in our drive to offer real choice to customers in Ireland. Our focus is on being a leading retail bank, providing attractive savings, mortgage and other financial services to consumers. We are committed to providing sustainable competition in the Irish market."

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Reynolds points to KBC's success in building a strong base of deposit customers as evidence of the appetite among consumers for the bank's services. "Over the past 18 months we developed a range of innovative deposit products, such as Interest Upfront, Top Up and Smart Access, which are attractive to savers. We've grown our deposit book by over €1 billion and have won over 20,000 new customers in 2012. We have a very solid customer base from which we can grow our business."

The new retail office is designed for banking in the 21st Century. Rather than imposing change on customers and driving them specifically to certain channels, we have designed a very open space which is bright and welcoming; moving away from the 'high counters environment' that is the traditional retail bank and creating informal, relaxed meeting spaces where customers can engage with KBC financial advisors.

(CD/GK)