Strategy 2028
Bank of Ireland’s Strategy 2028 covers a three-year timeframe (2026 to 2028) with an eye to the delivery of sustained value creation beyond this horizon. Strategy 2028 has three strategic pillars:
Stronger Relationships
Deepening engagement and primacy with customers
Simpler Business
Creating operating leverage and agility through structural efficiency
Resilient Company
Reinforcing trust, stability and disciplined risk management
Our purpose, vision and values
Our purpose is why we exist. Our vision sets out where we want to go. Our values represent who we are when we are at our best.
Our purpose
Is to help customers, colleagues, shareholders and society to thrive.
Our vision
Is to offer unrivalled financial choice – now and for generations to come.
- Unrivalled: We will be excellent in everything that we do. This spans across every team, every role, and every division.
- Financial choice: We will set the standard in the provision of financial products and services, in every part of our business – retail, corporate, wealth, insurance – wherever we do business. We are unique in our ability to serve our customers at every step and stage of their lives.
- Now and for generations to come: We will provide our customers with long term value – for generations – as we have done for almost 250 years.
Our values
Are fundamental to who we are and how we succeed.
- Customer First: Everything we do is for our customers. Our business is designed around them.
- Better Together: We achieve more when we work together.
- Take Ownership: We are trusted and supported to take ownership for our actions.
- Be Decisive: We move quickly and make things simple to deliver positive outcomes for customers and for us.
Combined, our purpose, vision and values are core to how we will deliver Strategy 2028.
Our next phase of growth
We are entering this new era from a position of strength. Our strategy builds from the foundation established in the last cycle to the next phase of disciplined growth. It also optimises the opportunities we see from the unique breadth of our business, supported by structural drivers that supplement growth potential:
- In Ireland, the Group holds leading positions across retail, business and corporate banking, underpinned by trusted brands, customer affinity, and a resilient funding base;
- Our scaled, integrated Wealth and Insurance platform enables us to deepen relationships and capture one of Ireland’s fastest-growing value pools;
- Our scale, reach and reputation, coupled with investments in core capabilities, gives us the platform to lead in a growing economy and;
- Outside of Ireland, we will focus on market segments with attractive economics where we can leverage our Group capabilities and create synergies.
Our priorities and pillars
Our new strategy will deliver across three priorities:
- Reaching our full potential and scale in Ireland, by enhancing our mortgage, Wealth and Insurance, and Everyday Banking franchises;
- Leveraging core Ireland strengths to ensure disciplined growth in our UK and international businesses, and;
- Earning the right to win by building future ready core capabilities, harnessing investments in digital, data, our people and culture, and customer insights.
Stronger Relationships
Deepening engagement and primacy with customers.
Our focus is to extend and expand the franchise and deepen customer relationships through proposition enhancements, tailored insights, personalised customer engagement and a refreshed brand platform.
We will show our customers that we know them, anticipate their needs across their life stages, and ensure that the unrivalled financial choice that Bank of Ireland offers is there when they need it.
We will be the provider of choice for wealth management building on the foundation of our relationships with individual and commercial customers. We will enhance the Davy brand, propositions and capability to deliver for all segments, including mass market, affluent and high net worth. Our transformed and scalable platform will secure a clear market leadership position, supported by next generation operations and AI.
We also plan to enhance our corporate pensions capability through relationships with brokers and our digital platform.
Simpler Business
Creating operating leverage and agility through structural efficiency.
We are creating a leaner, more effective organisation and a rapid pace of change by continuously optimising our delivery model. This enables faster, more frequent releases and a steady flow of new features and value for customers and colleagues.
Our tribe‑based agile model ensures change is delivered faster, with higher quality and greater stability benefiting all our stakeholders.
We will continue to simplify operations, increase automation and digitisation across Retail and Commercial sales and service, and bring a human touch to more complex customer needs.
We will evolve our consumer and commercial banking channels, delivering faster onboarding, automated credit decisioning and instant payments transforming the end‑to‑end customer experience.
Sales and service journeys will be mobile‑first and supported by AI‑enabled colleagues across our contact centres and branch network.
Resilient Company
Reinforcing trust, stability and disciplined risk management.
We will reinforce trust and resilience in the digital age by protecting our customers' interests and proactively safeguarding them in an ever‑changing environment. This includes continued investment in technology and systems to ensure the stability and reliability of critical services.
We remain vigilant against fraud and cyber threats, with advanced detection and prevention capabilities supported by clear, ongoing customer communication and awareness programmes.
We are committed to delivering long‑term sustainability for colleagues, customers and society. This means supporting the transition to a low‑carbon, nature‑positive future and backing the development of essential housing and infrastructure.
We will continue to drive positive societal impact by fostering inclusion, deepening colleague engagement, and helping communities build financial resilience.
For our colleagues, our strategy promotes a strong performance culture, underpinned by innovation, enterprise thinking and faster delivery. Scaled technology and AI tools will simplify work, empower teams, and free up time for higher‑value, customer‑facing activities.
AI is also core to our new strategy. We are deploying AI in a range of ways, including to speed customer service, improve efficiency, enable automation at all stages of our software development lifecycle and deepen customer insights and protections. We will continue to harness AI for efficiency and performance this year, and our longer term ambition is to fully embed AI across our business to accelerate strategic delivery and enhance both customer and colleague experience.
Our growth is driven by strategic opportunities that build on our strengths, diversify income and enhance efficiency. We will also make targeted investments to improve our capabilities and enable stronger top-line growth and operating leverage.