B of I to offer key literature in three languages

Bank of Ireland is to translate key banking literature into Mandarin, Polish and Russian in an effort to meet the needs of customers…

Bank of Ireland is to translate key banking literature into Mandarin, Polish and Russian in an effort to meet the needs of customers who are migrant workers.

The new documents will be introduced at the bank's 287 branches from August 2nd next. The bank will also hire bilingual branch staff in key locations.

There are an estimated 230,000 migrant workers living and working in the State, representing about 6 per cent of the total population.

Brendan Nevin, director of strategy and marketing at the bank, said: "Bank of Ireland has witnessed rapid high growth in the number of migrant worker customers banking with us in recent times, but primarily since the entry of the new accession states to the EU.

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"Immigration in 2005 could well exceed 70,000, and net migration is estimated to be running at 50,000 a year. Some of our branches estimate that migrant workers account for up to 70 per cent of new accounts opened in the last 12 months."