Comment: Never before has Irish banking been subject to such criticism and public moral outrage. Once considered a respected institution in the fabric of Irish life, Irish banking has fallen from grace in a series of headlines that seriously damage the industry's international reputation, writes Larry Broderick.

At a time when Irish banking should be proud of its contribution to the success of the Irish economy, unfortunately it is engulfed in endless revelations about overcharging, tax evasion and non-refunding.

One aspect of the rapidly changing public face of Irish banking is that, in less than a year, all of our main associated banks will have changed their chief executives. Other changes that have occurred are even more fundamental.

A welcomed development is the increase in the level of public awareness about consumer rights and a lot of the credit for this is due to the work of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (Ifsra). Ifsra is also responsible for another area of change, namely increased regulation. Events of recent years have illustrated that an industry as important to the national economy and well-being of society as financial services cannot be left to self-regulation.

The fine work of Ifsra in highlighting and getting to the root of inherent faultlines in our banking system accents the necessity for openness and transparency throughout modern banking. The increase in regulation and compliance has brought with it many pressures, not least on the front-line staff. However, a balance has to be achieved between profitable banking and compliant service.

Another side of the rapidly changing face of Irish banking is the advent of foreign ownership of Irish banks. In recent years, one of the world's largest banks, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), has taken ownership of Ulster Bank and First Active, and Danske Bank has recently completed the purchase of National Irish and Northern Banks.

The Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) believes we have nothing to fear and much to benefit from these acquisitions as, in both these instances, the takeovers were accompanied by a firm commitment to invest in and grow the business.

Instead of fearing foreign competition, we should welcome it and learn from it, particularly in relation to improved technology platforms and efficiency.

A further area from which we could learn lessons is in relation to employee empowerment and participation of staff at the most senior decision-making levels of foreign financial institutions. Danske Bank, for example, has seven elected employee representatives on its board of directors, while RBS operates a very effective European Employee Council.

One cannot help but wonder if there were worker-directors on the boards of Irish banks would the scandals in Irish banking have happened. There is also the need to comply with EU legislation on workplace information and the rights of employees to full consultation on major change that impacts on them.

Strangely enough, Ireland is one of the few countries to have failed to put in place legislation to give effect to this. Perhaps if we had more transparency and honesty at boardroom level, Irish banking would not be making international headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Irish banks have always been profitable but, in recent years, their profits have entered a different stratosphere. Banks appear to be set on wanting to outdo each other by reporting even greater levels of unprecedented profit. As the union representing staff in financial services, the IBOA welcomes healthy profit.

However, financial institutions need to strike a balance between achieving healthy profit and the highest ethical standards. The drive to maximise profit must not be at the expense of ethics and standards or come before staff and customers. The number-crunchers in banking who obsessively concentrate solely on the bottom line should remember that banking is not just about profit but, more importantly, it is also about people.

Banks derive their massive profits from the work and commitment of their staff and the loyalty of their customers. Lose sight of this and Irish banking will lose the very foundation of its success and, in an increasingly competitive environment, lose loyal staff on one hand and loyal customers on the other.

The current controversy about Bank of Ireland's plans to lay off over 2,100 staff members while announcing expected record profits of €1.3 billion has once again highlighted this "culture of profit" before everything else, and the moral bankruptcy of a mindset that believes it is somehow justifiable to make thousands of workers redundant while making record profits.

There is a need for all the stakeholders to learn the lessons from recent events and have an honest and robust debate about the future direction of our industry. Banking is far too important to be simply allowed to stumble from one crisis to another with respective banks patching up the cracks after scandals and hoping the next one hits one of their competitors.

This is why, I reiterate IBOA's call for a "forum on banking" to address once and for all some of the underlying problems and to restore the international standing and reputation of Irish banking.

Larry Broderick is general secretary of IBOA, the finance union.