Bank Of Scotland Ireland’s parent company Lloyds Banking Group says the government guarantee scheme contributed to it losing almost €1.6 billion in deposits over the past year.

Customer deposits at Lloyds’ international subsidiaries, including Ireland, fell by 22% in 2009.

Lloyds announced the closure of its Halifax retail network in Ireland earlier this month with the loss of 750 jobs.

Newstalk’s Business Editor Conor Brophy explains why they are not happy.

“Lloyds is saying that the government guarantee scheme effectively put it at a competitive disadvantage in Ireland – because Irish-owned institutions were able to benefit from having all their customer deposits guaranteed” he said.

“Whereas the British banking guarantee scheme – which covered Halifax and Bank of Scotland Ireland only guaranteed sums up to a certain amount”.

“That cost Halifax and Bank of Scotland millions of euro in deposits” he added.