Bank of Ireland held a wine tasting event on November 16 for the BBC Children in Need charity. “It served to thank banks in the market for the support they gave the enlarged Bank of Ireland (BOI) team over past 12 months since we set up in London,” says Tom Turney, the bank’s head of trade finance. “We had around 75 attendees and we hope the evening gave the chance to discuss current market conditions and market practice in informal circumstances whilst raising some money for a good cause. We would like to thank everyone who contributed and are pleased to advise Bank of Ireland has matched the money raised at the event.”

The wine tasting competition was won by Josh Cohen of Nedbank who obviously had been practising hard over the preceding weeks.

The BOI team is looking to expand further, including in the US market, where the bank has recently re-established a full branch presence, and in other areas within the trade finance product range.

“The emphasis on both the primary and secondary market has been to make BOI user-friendly and we are pleased that this message has seen our book grow threefold in a 12-month period,” adds Turney. “We do not have a large international network but the success we have enjoyed proves that there is a space in the market for a generalist trade bank that can be responsive and provide the required service levels to both corporates and bank counterparties.”