Post Office and Bank of Ireland to launch current account

The Post Office plans to launch a current account next year, cementing its relationship with the Bank of Ireland.

The Post Office plans to launch a current account next year, cementing its relationship with the Bank of Ireland.

It would boost the Post Office’s finance services and, it is hoped, encourage customers to use the 11,500-strong branch network, helping keep local offices open.

But the move has stoked controversy because savings with BoI – including Post Office accounts managed by BoI – are not covered by the UK depositor protection scheme. Instead, BoI accounts rely on the Irish government for protection.

If the Post Office goes ahead, its current account would be the only one in which customers’ money was not protected under the UK scheme.

Disclosure of the current account plans came in a marathon Parliamentary committee meeting when Alan Cook, the managing director of Post Office, was quizzed by a cross-party committee of MPs.

Discussion centred on the impact on post offices of the government’s planned part-privatisation of Royal Mail, which owns the Post Office.

Part way through the session, Cook said: “We have an aspiration to launch a current account next year, available in every branch.”