The battle for ICC Bank is hotting up, and one of the most interesting confrontations looks like being that between erstwhile allies Irish Life and Irish Intercontinental Bank (IIB) .

The former is now firmly pledging its troth to Irish Permanent, whose chairman, John Bourke, let it be known at this week's a.g.m. that the bank saw the purchase of ICC as providing the newly-merged group with a ready-made corporate banking arm.

A day previously, IIB's chairman, Paddy McEvoy, made it clear that his bank was confident of tying the knot with the State bank in an attempt to give it a presence in the pivotal small and medium business market.

Somebody must lose out at the end of the day.