The church, the GAA, and the banks

Even though the Wall Street Journal love affair with Fianna Fail has shown signs of fading, editorials on European issues still have a hard time resisting a nod to how things are better in the Republic. Hence Wednesday's editorial on Eurosclerosis, including in the seemingly arcane area of banking sector competition:

The top three countries in the share of cross-border loans in total domestic borrowing -- one measure of international competition -- are Iceland, Ireland and Luxembourg. These are also three of the richest.

Not to mention three of the smallest, and the latter two having significant regulatory and tax advantages for sourcing international financial transactions in their countries.

But it'll come as news to the typical Irish person that they live in a country with lots of banking competition given the huge inertia towards one's local branch in Ireland -- which extends to the fixation on official forms for having that pillar of society, the bank manager, as an acceptable witness to various things. Indeed, banking is definitely one area where having two jurisdictions and two currencies in the island doesn't help. Interesting in that context to note that a long-awaited reform of mobile phone charges -- the abolition of roaming fees has been announced by O2 (via Slugger O'Toole).