Bank of Ireland was established under Royal Charter of King George III in 1783. From then until the formation of the Central Bank of Ireland in 1942 the bank was primarily a banker to the Government. It began to grow in the 1950s. It acquired the Hibernian Bank in 1958, the Irish offices of the National Bank in 1966 and established instalment credit and merchant banking subsidiaries in 1960 and 1966 respectively.

The bank first looked to add an international dimension to its operations in the 1970s, setting up representative offices in London, Frankfurt and Tokyo.

In the 1980s Bank of Ireland set about becoming a broadly-based financial services group, acquiring the ICS Building Society, establishing a life assurance group, Lifetime, and purchasing Davy Stockbrokers. In 1987 it expanded its UK interests, acquiring a group which traded as Bank of Ireland Home Mortgages and in 1997 made its biggest acquisition with the purchase of Bristol & West.

It also established significant operations in the US during that time, buying into First New Hampshire Bank, Amoskeag Bank, BankEast Corporation and Great Bay Bankshares. The US holdings were later merged with Citizens Financial Group in 1996 to form the third largest banking group in New England. Last September it sold its stake in Citizens to Royal Bank of Scotland.

In the Republic, it purchased the life assurer New Ireland Holdings last year and has also expressed a strong interest in acquiring the State-owned ICC Bank when it is put out to tender by the Government.

Today Bank of Ireland is the Republic's second largest bank. It has 14,600 employees, 9,000 of whom work in the Republic and North of Ireland. The bank has 360 branches in Ireland.