Spanish bank Bankinter has surpassed 230,000 customers in Ireland through its Avant Money brand, growing its Irish investment portfolio 24 per cent to 5.2 billion euros seven years after entering the market, a milestone that matters broadly because it confirms a genuine full-service banking competitor has emerged in a market still short of choice since Ulster Bank and KBC exited, and matters specifically to accountancy professionals because it expands the range of deposit, mortgage and investment products they can point clients toward when advising on where to hold cash and savings.

Bankinter is a Madrid-headquartered Spanish bank, the country's fifth-largest by assets with a balance sheet of roughly 118 billion euros, operating in Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg and Ireland.

Avant Money is Bankinter's Irish branch, formed from the 2019 acquisition of consumer lender Avantcard and converted into a fully licensed bank branch in April 2025, offering mortgages, personal loans, credit cards and, since February 2026, deposit accounts from its Carrick-on-Shannon and Dublin offices.

The scale reached is substantial for a market entrant. Bankinter's Irish loan and credit volume has multiplied thirteenfold since 2019, its consumer credit book now exceeds 1 billion euros, and its mortgage business has grown its new lending 29 per cent this year, giving Bankinter roughly 3.6 per cent of all household lending in Ireland.

When Avant Money converted to a full bank branch in 2025, the government welcomed the move explicitly as a competition gain, a response shaped by the earlier exits of Ulster Bank and KBC that had left the Irish market with fewer full-service retail lenders than most peer economies.

That competitive gap is precisely why this growth carries weight beyond Bankinter's own results. As the bank layers deposits and a wider investment offering onto its existing mortgage and consumer lending business, it becomes a more complete alternative that clients can weigh against the two remaining domestic banks.

For the sector, a genuinely fourth full-service option strengthens the case accountants can make when comparing rates, terms and product features across deposit, mortgage and investment advice for clients.

Source: El Democrata / El Economista / RTE