Sir, - It is no coincidence that I get the cheapest variable rate mortgage in town and the best possible service from the TSB Bank, which has no shareholders in the usual sense.
Experience here and in the UK demonstrates that when mutual societies become plc banks, profit margins rise at the customers' expense. So, as far as I'm concerned, Charlie McCreevy can go ahead and approve the merger of TSB Bank and ACC Bank - it probably makes sense. But he should preserve the new entity as a non-plc mutual, maintaining real freedom of choice and an island of public service in an ocean of shareholder greed. - Yours, etc., Patrick Kinsella,
St Kevin's Gardens, Dublin 6.