Matthew Elderfield, the head of financial regulation at the Central Bank of Ireland, on Thursday revealed details of a new risk assessment model for financial institutions operating in Ireland.

Banks will be categorised as high impact, medium-high impact, medium-low impact or low impact, under the model and scrutinised accordingly.

"We [the central bank] regulate 14,100 financial services firms all of which pose potential risks, to differing degrees, to the economy or to consumers," said