, Britain’s sixth-biggest lender, also projects a conscious informality. He is wearing jeans in the office. The bank’s offices feel more like a tech company’s. This is what he wants.
The bank’s staff don’t have to come to the office any more; they can work from anywhere under its “A Life More Virgin” flexible working policy. The bank’s office in the Cheesegrater is meant to be just a “collaborative space”.While Duffy is based in London, his personal assistant, whom he shares with the company’s chairman, lives 275 miles away.
I took the AIB job with a very clear view that you weren’t going to be met on a red carpet with rose petals. It was obviously a very difficult time – not for the bank, but for people who had damage done by banksDuffy is the embodiment of the metropolitan, international Irish executive. He was born in London, raised in Dublin by his aunt and uncle, whom he considers his parents, and the family later moved to Cork.
He says Ireland has plenty of “banking facilities”, but needs more competition due to its exodus of banks. The evidence can be seen, he says, in the lower deposit rates paid in the Irish market. Its future is as part of a Virgin-branded “everything app” offering all of the services in the wider Virgin franchise group, which includes more than 30 companies as diverse as airlines, cruise ships, hotels and wine suppliers.