EBS' d.a.c. is a financial institution in Ireland registered as a designated activity company and was the country's largest building society until 1 July 2011. At its peak, the EBS had more than 300,000 customers and distributed its products through a branch and franchised agency network. It handles direct business by telephone and the Internet. The former head of EBS building society Fergus Murphy told the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry in 2015 there was a “very reasonable chance” the institution could have made it through the crash without being nationalised and merged with AIB if it had not got involved in land development and commercial property lending.