It had to happen . . . and from Monday it will. The day Irish banks had dreaded for so long is upon them as the first serious foreign competition enters the lucrative Irish mortgage market in the guise of Bank of Scotland.

Adding to the woes of the domestic financial institutions is the fact that the arriviste will hold even more aces than simply its familiarity with working in a lower margin environment. It will also be operating in the low-cost environment of direct sales from its existing telesales centre in Edinburgh.

Not even this lack of employment opportunities could disguise the delight of putupon customers as they wake up to the new dawn of real competition among mortgage lenders in the Republic.