The Ulster Bank Group has announced 750 voluntary redundancies across the island of Ireland in an attempt to adapt to the 'prevailing market conditions'.
550 jobs will go in the Republic with another 200 going in Northern Ireland.
The group also said that its specialist mortgage and investment arm First Active will merge with Ulster Bank. This will result in the amalgamation of First Active with Ulster Bank branches in 45 locations. Another 15 First Active branches will convert to Ulster Bank branches.
All First Active customers will be automatically transferred to Ulster Bank.
Ulster Bank group chief executive Cormac McCarthy told RTE radio he was confident it could secure 750 redundancies on a voluntary basis. He said Ulster Bank would be in discussions with unions and staff over the next few. But SIPTU's Eoin Reidy said he was not sure 750 people would apply for voluntary redundancy in the current economic climate.
Ulster Bank Group, a subsidiary of troubled Royal Bank of Scotland, employs 7,000 people in both the Republic and in Northern Ireland.
It also owns First Active which has 60 branches employing over 400 people. Ulster Bank has 132 branches in the south, many of them in the same general location.
That duplication was a good idea in the boom when lenders aggressively sought to build their loan books, but it is of little value in a recession.
Ulster Bank says that meetings will be held with employees and unions in the coming days to plan the merger and to present details of the package available.
'These actions will result in a leaner, more cost efficient organisation, well placed to continue to meet the needs of the changed marketplace,' the bank says.
The merger is expected to be completed towards the end of the year, the banking group said.
Staff being scapegoated for 'greed' of parent bank
Trade unions in Ulster Bank and First Active say there must be no compulsory redundancies at either bank as a result of restructuring by their parent bank Royal Bank of Scotland.
They also said that services to customers at First Active must be protected.
The general secretary of the Irish Bank Officials Association, Larry Broderick, said he believed Ulster Bank Group staff were being scapegoated for the mismanagement, incompetence and greed of senior management in the parent company.
The IBOA represents about 4,000 staff in Ulster Bank.
SIPTU's Owen Reidy described the proposed job cuts as crude and said more talks must take place on the plan. The union represents 360 workers in First Active branches around the country.
The job losses are the first substantial losses in the Irish retail banking sector arising from the global recession and the bursting of the property bubble.
Today's move comes as Ulster Bank's ultimate parent Royal Bank of Scotland struggles to survive the credit crunch which has wiped out most of its market value.
The British Government is set to assume majority ownership of the bank, once one of the biggest in the world.
KBC looking for 15 Dublin lay-offs
KBC Bank has confirmed it is to make 14 staff redundant from its Dublin headquarters. It is understood the cuts are being made across all four of the bank's divisions. The bank currently employs 700 people in a range of services in Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Letterkenny and Belfast. The largest division is Homeloans, which employs 500.
