Despite previous capital injections into Irish banks, and despite the proposed but not quite yet completed recapitalisation of the Irish banking sector, Irish bank deposits have declined in the last couple of years. It's possible that the sovereign debt issue can be 'kicked down the road' for many more months and even years. However if the slow motion deposit drain continues, and/or the pace of the withdrawals accelerate, then this may be the issue that causes a proper resolution (ie, haircuts on bank and/or sovereign debt) in Ireland. Link to December 2010 article on Zero Hedge: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/irish-ecb-borrowings-surge-countrys-bank-run-picks-speed "As Irish ECB Borrowings Surge, The Country's Bank Run Picks Up Speed" Link to previous post about Irish banks in my journal from December 2010: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3048103#post3048103 (this post contains links to a Reuters and a Bloomberg article that discusses Irish bank deposits)
Link to Central Bank of Ireland source data: http://www.centralbank.ie/data/site/cmbs/ie_table_a.4.1_credit_institutions_(domestic_group)_-_aggregate_balance_sheet.xls Link to Scott Minnerd's thoughts on the Ireland Banking system (December 2010): http://guggenheimpartners.com/gp/me...-Perspectives---December-21-2010.pdf?ext=.pdf Forbes article on the Scott Minerd thesis about a run on Irish banks: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/01/03/2011-year-of-the-bank-run/ Title = 2011: Year of the bank run?