Danske Bank (Northern Ireland)

Branch in Mohill, circa 1905.

A private Northern Bank was founded in Belfast in 1809 as the Northern Banking Partnership. Those partners were Belfast merchants John Hamilton, Hugh Montgomery, James Orr and John Sloan. On 1 August 1824 it became a Joint Stock bank called The Northern Banking Company Limited. The bank expanded across Ireland, opening its first branch in the south in 1840.[4]

On 1 January 1929 the name of the bank was changed from Northern Banking Company Limited to Northern Bank Limited. In 1965, the Northern Bank Limited was acquired by the Midland Bank, a London-based bank which had acquired the Belfast Bank in 1917. In 1970, the Midland's two Northern Ireland subsidiaries were merged with the name of the merged bank continuing as Northern Bank Limited.[5] Under Midland's ownership, Northern Bank shared its parent company's branding and the Griffin logo.

In 1986, Midland re-organised its British and Irish operations, and as part of this process it separated its Northern Bank branches in the Republic of Ireland and transferred into a newly formed company called Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited.[5]

Acquisition by National Australia Bank

After 1988, Northern Bank branding changed to a hexagonal 'N' logo, as seen on this branch in Omagh.

Midland Bank ran into severe financial difficulty as a result of its 1981 acquisition of Crocker National Bank in the US and was forced to divest itself of assets to restore stability. In 1988, Midland sold off its subsidiaries, namely the Clydesdale Bank in Scotland, Northern Bank Limited and Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited, all of which were acquired by National Australia Bank. After this, Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited was renamed National Irish Bank.[6][5] The Northern Bank brand name continued in Northern Ireland, but a new logo was introduced, a stylised "N" in a hexagon shape. In 2002, the bank's logotype (the word "Northern") was changed to match that of the National Australia Bank.

As of September 2021, Vicky Davies is the CEO of Danske Bank UK. The bank is organised into three business divisions.

Shaun McAnee is Managing Director of Corporate & Business Banking. Aisling Press is Managing Director of Personal Banking. Richard Caldwell is Managing Director, Great Britain.

Stephen Matchett is Deputy CEO & Chief Financial Officer.

A £10 note bearing the Danske Bank branding issued in 2013.

A 2005 reissue £20 note, bearing the former Northern Bank brand name.

In common with the other Big Four retail banks of Northern Ireland, Northern Bank trading as Danske Bank continues to issue its own banknotes, a practice which was abolished in England and Wales in the early Twentieth Century. Northern Bank trading as Danske Bank notes are pound sterling notes and equal in value to Bank of England notes and should not be confused with banknotes of the former Irish pound, a separate currency which was replaced by the Euro in the Republic of Ireland in 2002; nor should Northern Bank trading as Danske Bank notes be confused with banknotes of the Danish Krone issued by the Danish National Bank, in spite of the Danish name of the issuing bank.

Following the acquisition of Northern Bank by Danske Bank, banknotes issued since June 2013 now bear Danske Bank branding in place of the Northern Bank name; otherwise the designs remain identical to the previous issue. The phrase 'a trading name of Northern Bank Limited' is now in place after Danske Bank. Older banknotes bearing the Northern Bank name are still in circulation and continue to be acceptable for payments as they are gradually withdrawn. Danske Bank has also ceased issue of £50 and £100 notes and will in future only print £10 and £20 notes.[12][13]

Danske Bank does not issue £5 notes, but a special commemorative £5 note was issued by the Northern Bank to mark the Year 2000. Uniquely among sterling notes, this was a vertical polymer banknote, printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) on Australian synthetic polymer substrate instead of paper, making Northern Ireland the only part of the UK to have issued a plastic banknote prior to Scotland & England issuing the £5 polymer notes in Autumn 2016.[14][15] It is the only one of the bank's pre-2004 notes still in circulation; all others were recalled following the 2004 robbery.

As promissory notes, the current issue of the banknotes bear the inscription below the Danske Bank logo, "a trading name of Northern Bank Limited which promises to pay the bearer on demand", followed by the monetary value of the note.[13] Most Northern Bank banknotes feature an illustration on the reverse side of the portico of Belfast City Hall, sculpted by F. W. Pomeroy. The front of most notes depict a range of notable people associated with industry in Northern Ireland. The designs currently in circulation are:

2005 reissue

An old design £20 Northern Bank note withdrawn in 2005.

Following the £26.5 million robbery in 2004 (see below), Northern Bank announced on 7 January 2005 that all its notes were to be recalled and reissued in revised designs and using the updated Northern Bank logo already used at the 10 pound note dated 2004. The reissue began on 14 March 2005 and was scheduled to take one month; old notes remain exchangeable at branches of Northern Bank.[17] The principal colours of Northern Bank notes of greater than £5 face value were changed with the 2005 reissue:

Denomination	Pre-2005	Post-2005
£5	blue	(not re-issued)
£10	brown	green
£20	purple	blue
£50	green	purple
£100	black	red

On the older notes, the bank's N symbol was enclosed in a vertical rectangular bar above the 'Northern' logo; after reissue, the N monogram was presented as a free-standing hexagonal graphic above the new italic Northern logo. After the Danske rebrand, Northern branding has been replaced with the Danske Bank logo on notes issued after 2013.

On 20 December 2004 the cash centre at the bank's headquarters in Belfast was raided, and £26.5 million stolen. Most of this consisted of uncirculated Northern Bank notes, as well as millions in used notes. There was also over a million pounds in other currencies. The police and government as well as other major political figures in both Ireland and the United Kingdom accused the Provisional Irish Republican Army of being responsible.

On 9 October 2008 the trial of the only man to be charged with the robbery collapsed when Chris Ward, 26, was found not guilty.[19]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Northern Bank.

• Official website
• "Current Banknotes: Danske Bank". The Association of Commercial Banknote Issuers. Archived from the original on 28 October 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
• http://www.banknote.ws/COLLECTION/countries/EUR/NIR/NIR-NOB.htm Banknotes of the Northern Bank/Danske Bank