The Irish Bank Officials Association has called on the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, to set up a Commission on Banking amid concerns among members that their jobs are under threat.
The union said Mr Lenihan should ensure that the banking sector operated in the longer-term public interest rather than continue the short-sighted approach that generated the current crisis.
The IBOA is seeking information from the Government on the impact which the National Asset Management Agency will have on the union's 23,000 members.
The IBOA's General Secretary, Larry Broderick, said that once the transfer of toxic assets from the financial institutions to NAMA got under way, it opened up the possibility for a major consolidation of the sector through mergers, acquisitions or closures.
He said the IBOA is concerned that consolidation could be used as a pretext by senior managements to pursue an opportunistic cost-cutting agenda putting thousands of jobs at risk.
Mr Broderick observed that IBOA members did not precipitate the culture of greed at the heart of the banking crisis.
However, he said bank staff could now be scapegoated by the flawed management philosophy of short-term profit-taking at the expense of long-term stability.
