The Bank of Scotland (BoS) has hit out at what it says is anti-competitive practices in Ireland's financial market and has warned it will reconsider expansion plans here if the situation does not improve.
The bank, which first entered the Irish market in 1990, accused local rivals of maintaining double standards by helping abolish anti-competitive practices where they operated in Britain, but failing to address similar situations here.
"It is outrageous that the Irish banks refuse to offer their Irish customers the same benefits ... customers suffer poor choice and get poor value as a result," Mr Mark Duffy, chief executive of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) said in a statement.
Existing players, the bank said, had "revealed a remarkable tendency to act in a concerted way" towards pricing, product offerings and their reactions to new entrants.
The Competition Authority has undertaken an investigation into the domestic industry.
Bank of Scotland, which employs 700 people on both sides of the border, said it had ambitious plans for the country over the next four years but warned it would not expand unless there was "a level playing field".