The larger banks are fast losing touch with customers real needs as the managers grow more remote, says the chairman and chief executive of Dauphin Deposit Corporation banking group Mr Chris Jennings (left). Dauphin of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is to be taken over by AIB. Mr Jennings said Dauphin and First Maryland, AIB's US subsidiary, can "whip the opposition" when they get together.

The deal "gives us a chance to be part of a $50 billion global company but with a $17 billion to $20 billion banking company in the US, wholly owned and takeover proof," he says in an interview with The Irish Times Washington Correspondent, Joe Carroll. If that company doen what it should do - and it will take three to four years to get it there - it will, in our vernacular, kick butt in this market place," he said. Page 3