No deal the biggest threat to the local economy

Danske Bank CEO Kevin Kingston said he was particularly concerned about the potential impact on small businesses and said it was likely some would go to the wall.

Speaking as the bank reported an operating profit of £92 million for the 12 months to end December 2018, Mr Kingston said Brexit was unavoidably dominating the life of the province fuelling uncertainty and frustration.

“As the biggest bank in Northern Ireland, we have a strong insight into how thousands of local businesses operate.

“What we have seen is that larger businesses hage been taking decisions to try to safeguard their operations, but the smaller businesses are far less prepared, making them the most vulnerable.

“At this point, I am gravely concerned about the challenges ahead should a hard Brexit become a reality.”

Describing the bank’s efforts to help client firms, he said the advice involved a variety of issues.

“The obvious points that we are encouraging them to think about are potential foreign exchange consequences... in the short term and the longer term and what that would mean in terms of the price of raw materials and the value of their goods if they are exporters.”

Nevertheless, he said there could be some stark consequences from a no deal.

“In the event of that scenario arising, our calculations suggest there will certainly be an impact on economic growth, there will certainly be an impact on house prices and an impact on unemployment.

“If you put those sort of shocks into the economy, of course there will be businesses that wouldn’t be able to survive.”

In that instance he said the bank would at the circumstances on an individual basis.

“We’ve been here 200 years and I very much expect and hope that we’ll be here for a long time to come.

“That will require us to be flexible and it will require us to support out business customers in that process.”