First Trust decision to stop issuing its own bank notes is no loss

First Trust has had the right to issue its own notes since it was Allied Irish Bank.

Ulster Bank, Bank of Ireland, and Danske Bank (formerly the Northern Bank) have the same right.

While this is perhaps a status symbol for those institutions, and arguably a distinguishing feature of Northern Ireland, it is hard to see any other purpose for the regional notes.

Whenever anyone leaves Northern Ireland, they struggle to get the bank notes recognised. While it is illegal and frustrating for any trader in Great Britain to refuse such notes, can anyone really be surprised when they do so?

It is hard for NI people to keep track of the varying local bank notes. As is apparent above, some of the banks have changed names in recent decades. And all of them have changed their notes.

This is bewildering enough for Ulster folk, let alone people who do not see them daily, looking like a foreign currency and heightening their fear of a counterfeit.

It is welcome that First Trust is abandoning local notes.

Meanwhile, the outgoing £5 and £10 notes from the Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank and Ulster Bank are to be withdrawn from circulation next week. They will be replaced by polymer notes which were introduced into circulation in February. The latter are more secure and environmentally friendly.

The new notes may be welcome but the transition time is too short for users. The new Bank of England £5 notes were introduced in September 2016, but the old ones no longer acceptable in shops as soon as the following May. Even banks only accepted them shortly after that time.

Then they could only be replaced via the Bank of England, which puts a burden on elderly people who might have older notes because they struggle to stay promptly on top of their affairs.