...I also got a call from a recruiter on Tuesday saying that KBC were desperately looking for a financial planner. Why would they be hiring staff if they may announce pulling out of the Irish market? ...
I think you will find that they have also been recruiting for a new team to start lending to professionals within the SME sector, for the guts of a year now... other than messing hundreds (if not thousands ?) of applicants around, they have hired a grand total of one person to date from what I hear. Seems to me like they are going around in circles, pretending to be busy but really doing next to nothing, until their foreign masters tell them what the future holds for them.
Stories about FBD surprised me a great deal. Like Ravima, I would have expected them to be after a Life Assurance business, rather than a General Insurance Co. also. Would the likes of Friends First be a possible suitor ?
My own bet is that they are will go with the flow for another couple of years. Now that they are back making profits there is no urgency to do something.
Notwithstanding the above, a medium plan might be to "merge" KBC & PTSB, floating the combined entity on the Irish Stock Exchange. That would give the Government a way out of PTSB while claiming that they are helping to create a real challenger bank, to compete with BoI, UB & AIB. Obviously, the Belgians would also have the choice of divesting, or holding a minority stake in a quoted banking group. However, this would require the PTSB to be put right first and from what I can see, that won't be happening any time too soon (unless they skin it right back to the very basics of a savings and loans institution, but even then there are still thousands of mortgage holders need to be sorted out regarding compensation, or restructuring etc.).
