Working with Suppliers

Our suppliers are an essential part of Bank of Ireland and play a vital role in supporting the Group’s purpose of enabling our Customers, Colleagues and Communities to thrive.

The Bank will pay small and medium enterprise suppliers earlier than our standard 30 day payment terms during 2023. See details on the Working with Suppliers home page.

Being a Supplier to Bank of Ireland

In order to enable our customers, colleagues and communities to thrive, we must work to high standards. We are committed to ensuring that all our dealings with suppliers are conducted in accordance with the principles of fair and ethical trading, from initial procurement activity to ongoing supplier management. We want to work with suppliers of all sizes who meet the required level of performance and quality.

We take seriously our responsibility to manage our impact on the environment and take the necessary steps to source goods and services responsibly across our supply chain.

The Group operates a number of policies which reflect our objective to acting ethically and in line with our legal and regulatory obligations with regard to our employees, customers and our business relationships. Suppliers are no exception.

The Group Code of Conduct is the standard that we set ourselves for what we say and do in our relationships with our customers, suppliers, colleagues, shareholders, regulators, government bodies and other parties. The Code represents our approach to the standards we expect from each other and it prescribes a set of behaviours expected of all employees of the Bank of Ireland Group, wherever they work. We organise these standards under four principles:

  • Customers – we treat customers fairly;
  • Conduct – we act with integrity in our dealings;
  • Colleagues – we are respectful to each other and value the contribution of others;
  • Compliance – we comply with the Code, our policies and applicable legal and regulatory obligations.

Bank of Ireland has a Code of Supplier Responsibility that sets out what we expect from our Suppliers. This Code builds on our core values of Customer First, Better Together, Take Ownership and Be Decisive, and sets out the key social, ethical and sustainability standards that we want our suppliers to achieve. We have set out how Suppliers can meet our policy compliance expectations in the Bank of Ireland Third Party Policies document. These Third Party Policies translate Bank internal Policy statements and controls into mandatory clear requirements that we expect our Third Party Suppliers to meet.

Our expectations

We expect all of our suppliers to:

  • Operate in line with our Code of Supplier Responsibility and Bank of Ireland Third Party Policies.
  • Ensure responsible, fair and honest dealings with all their stakeholders, including employees, sub-contractors and other third parties in their supply chain
  • Deliver fair outcomes for our customers
  • Complete the Financial Supplier Qualification System (FSQS) on an annual basis