National Irish Bank is working hard to rebuild its brand and says it is determined to become an example of "best practice" in the financial services industry. Addressing the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants in Dublin yesterday, the bank's chief operating officer, Mr Owen Vanzuyden, said NIB has invested a lot of time and money over the past 18 months to get its procedures right and will learn from its previous shortcomings. "What we must do above all is to ensure that the shortcomings of the past are not repeated," he said.

Mr Vanzuyden, who took over the running of the bank last October, said his job now is to create a platform for growth for National Australia Bank in the Republic. The bank will look at every possible acquisition opportunity within the Irish and European banking sector. "There are numerous opportunities for the bank and none more so than in the Republic," he said.

Some years ago NIB sought to acquire TSB Bank, however, the deal foundered at that stage. When asked whether the bank would still have an interest in TSB he said it would continue to look at developments with interest.

Mr Vanzuyden said he had joined the bank at a very difficult time. On his arrival, one Sunday newspaper dubbed him the man with the "toughest job" in Ireland, he said. "It was certainly some baptism of fire and not one for which I would voluntarily have written the script. At the time I sought the views of this country's most well-known strategy advisers - the Irish taxi driver - all of whom told me that all the banks were a bunch of thieves," he told the accountants. After such conversations, he concluded that the only way for the bank was up.

"Our bank has been hitting the headlines regularly for the past two years, regrettably for all the wrong reasons and also whilst in some circumstances justified, in many respects unfairly also. It has not been a happy time for our customers or for our hard-working and dedicated staff, in fact more than two thirds of our employees weren't even on the payroll at the time these allegations were referred to."

The first building block for the bank is to ensure that its business strategy is customer-driven and also to have a happy, well-motivated, well-trained workforce. Mr Vanzuyden said this has now been achieved and the bank is looking forward to growing its business.