Profile: The loyalty of some three million retail customers is important to Danske Bank, where branches stay open from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. every banking day and advisers will agree to meet customers at 7.30 a.m. so they can complete property transactions and still get into work on time.
The biggest bank in Denmark and the second-largest financial institution in Scandinavia, Danske Bank's main branch-based operations are in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and now Ireland, following its takeover of National Irish Bank and Northern Bank. The bank boasts a strong reputation for personal service and likes to play up the pro-consumer, friendly atmosphere of its recently remodelled branches.
"For example, the customer and adviser now sit on the same side of the desk so that they can both see the information and calculations on the computer monitor," according to Danske Perspective, a booklet giving a snapshot of "the company behind the accounting data".
It's not just numbers and forms at Danske Bank.
While Irish banks might be content to stick a ceiling-level television broadcasting MTV or Sky News to an increasingly impatient queue of lunchtime customers, Danske Bank goes one step further by catering for the bored kiddies standing in line with their parents, furnishing branches with "chests of exciting toys that can make the wait more amusing".
There have been some hiccups along the way. Between 2001 and 2003, the bank merged a number of branches and closed others, shedding a few customers in the process.
It now has a network of 464 branches in Denmark.
In March of last year, the Danske Bank group's IT systems broke down, prompting a full review of its operations and a drive to improve security.
Consumer confidence does not appear to have been too dented, however, and its online service Danske Netbank has attracted some 750,000 customers to date.
Its online capabilities are seen as one of its strengths within the Danish market, and the bank has signalled that it will develop the same level of technology and range of products at National Irish Bank and Northern Bank.
In Scandinavia, the Danske Bank group is involved in banking, insurance, mortgage finance, life and pensions, real estate, asset management, brokerage and leasing services.
Its fees and charges are not the cheapest in the Danish market, but they're not the most expensive either.
The group's entry into the Irish market could lead to much better value mortgages for consumers here, as Danske Bank charges interest at a much lower margin over base rates than Irish lenders.
Its flagship mortgage product in Denmark is combined with a deposit account that pays a rate of interest equal to the rate charged on the loan, an offer which could have much appeal were it to be repeated here.
BG Bank, a division of Danske Bank in Denmark, sells a current account that gives customers special discount offers on theatre tickets, restaurant meals and travel arrangements.
If a similar product were to be introduced here, it would compete with Ulster Bank's U First current account package, the only "lifestyle" bank account available in the Republic.
