Monetary union will affect business strategies and the way firms market their products, Mr Philip Halpin, chief operating officer at National Irish Bank, warned yesterday. Speaking at a Marketing Institute breakfast, Mr Halpin pointed out that strategic business issues were neglected in the debate about the single currency.

"My concern is that many organisations regard monetary union as primarily an IT project rather than a strategic issue," he said.

He also warned that qualifying for monetary union was only the start and increased discipline and rigour would be required to operate successfully. "Participants will not be able to sit back post-January 1999." According to Mr Halpin, price transparency and price harmonisation will be the order of the day. Merger and acquisition activity will intensify and very few products will be solely marketed on one domestic market.

The need to be competitive had seldom been greater, he said. "The competition is not asleep and will attack our market-place in considerable force post-January 1999." He pointed to the spate of mergers and acquisitions of banks and other financial services companies across Europe in recent years as a pointer towards things to come.

Mr Halpin also called for a stabilisation fund to help compensate for any unforeseen shocks to EU economies.