Mike Bamber's arrival at Ulster Bank is a sign that Royal Bank of Scotland is flexing its muscles on this side of the pond, writes Siobhán Creaton, Finance Correspondent

Mike Bamber is only 41 but boasts of a 26-year career at Royal Bank of Scotland. Having been immersed in its culture since the tender age of 16 it would be fair to describe him as a "Royal Bank Man" through and through. And so his arrival at Ulster Bank's Belfast headquarters last December has been noted as a tangible sign that the Scots have begun to flex their muscles on this side of the Irish Sea.

Royal Bank of Scotland's chief executive, Mr Fred Goodwin, acquired the very profitable Ulster Bank when he successfully pulled off the hostile bid for its parent, the National Westminster Bank, in 2000. Since then Mr Goodwin, known as "Fred the Shred" for his ruthless cost-cutting ways, has been focused on integrating the British-based NatWest business within Royal Bank, which is now the world's fifth-biggest financial institution.

Mr Bamber is keen to play down the significance of his appointment as head of Irish retail banking operations stressing that it does not mark any notable shift in the power base. "As a shareholder, RBOS is looking for objectives to be met, but Ulster Bank is run by its executives. It's got a separate board with non-executive directors and a chairman. Anything that myself and my team decide to do will be because we spot an opportunity to take market share from the competition and not because RBOS said so. In the nicest sense, we understand the Irish market rather than it being any better understood in Edinburgh," he says.

Despite reassurances that the status quo is being maintained, the bank has been rumoured to be considering centralising its treasury operations in London, which could result in job losses in Dublin. Its Irish stockbroking arm, NCB, was almost sold to a French bank until the deal foundered, but is expected to be purchased by its senior management in the near future.

Indeed, there have even been suggestions that Ulster Bank may be on the block, something that Mr Bamber definitively rules out. "Of all the speculation that I have seen since I have been in Ireland that's the one that I can't understand. Anyone who looks at the RBOS group sees the fifth-biggest bank in the world and it's got aspirations to be even bigger. I don't understand why the bank would sell off a core asset like Ulster Bank."

Mr Goodwin is probably very pleased with its performance, particularly its low cost-to-income ratio, which is in sync with its lean mother ship.

One of RBOS's low-cost formulas, the Horizon programme, has already been applied to Ulster Bank causing great upset and tension between staff and management. Its primary effect was a radical altering of the bank's pay structure and great changes in the functions carried out at branch level. The resentment caused continues to fester and just last month, Ulster Bank staff said they were once again considering strike action, claiming the bank had failed to honour existing agreements.

Mr Bamber acknowledges that relationships between executives and staff are strained but insists the situation will not deteriorate into a strike.

"Coming into Ulster Bank in December I was clearly aware that relationships between the bank's executives and the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) weren't at their best. Since then I have held 14 roadshows attended by over 800 staff. I have also met the IBOA reps whom I consider to be people that I can do business with and I hope that having met me they would say the same."

Mr Bamber says the bank has a problem if its staff are unhappy, regardless of whether there is a trade union involved. "Clearly the IBOA is a much more successful and more influential union than the unions that I would be accustomed to communicating with in my previous roles. I don't see that there is a real danger of industrial action. I think if there was industrial action, then everybody loses. The staff would lose out, the bank would clearly lose out and so would the customers. If it got to that, then things would have to deteriorate a heck of a lot from this point," Mr Bamber says.

He arrived in Belfast with some experience of the trepidation that former NatWest employees harboured about their new parent, having worked on the integration in London before moving to Belfast. "I would like to think I left the NatWest region a better region for both customers and staff and the shareholders. This is very much a meritocracy within Royal Bank Group - you do a good job and you expect to be rewarded."

His reward was a transfer to Ireland with a brief to grow the bank's business North and South of the Border. In Northern Ireland, it has a dominant position in providing personal banking services, while in the Republic it has established a niche in meeting the banking requirements of small and medium-sized businesses.

"My strategy is going to be different in both marketplaces. One is about real growth opportunities, the other is about cross- selling to the customer base that we have," he explains.

The Republic's banking market is currently being examined by the Competition Authority but Mr Bamber believes Ulster Bank doesn't have anything to fear about its findings. "There is aggressive competition but that makes us fitter and keeps us on our toes, so that's a healthy environment to be in. It points to the fact that when the Competition Authority does its review we shouldn't have anything to fear."

He is even optimistic that its findings could assist his efforts to grow the business. "I hope the Competition Authority will make some recommendations to ease the transfer of bank accounts. Customers don't shop around as much as I would like. With a 9 per cent market share in the Republic, I would love them to shop around a bit more."

Mr Bamber has the impression that the Irish media pay more attention to the banking sector than their UK counterparts, but that bankers are generally no more unpopular here than in Britain.

"There has been plenty of criticism of banks. Clearly I don't believe that it is all deserved but I think there is still a lot more we could do in terms of customer service. If we are truly going to become retailers, we need to think like retailers. There is always going to be a sensitivity when you handle other people's money. There is always going to be a level of unpopularity about us."

Banking is in his blood. His father was a banker and Mr Bamber says he would recommend the job to his children - just as long as they didn't end up working to close to him.

Name: Mike Bamber

Age: 41

Family: A 13-year-old son and four-year-old daughter

Background: From Lancashire

Interests: Plays some golf but says it's not to the standard of his management colleagues at Ulster Bank. His main interests are keeping fit and skiing.

Career: He joined the Royal Bank of Scotland at 16, working in branches in Lancashire before moving to branch audit and eventually to the City and West End of London. He was appointed regional managing director in NatWest in the Midlands and Wales immediately after Royal Bank of Scotland took it over in April 2000.

Why is he in the news? He is responsible for growing Ulster Bank's retail businesses in the North and the Republic.