BANK WORKERS FACE REQUEST TO FIX UP DILAPIDATED BRANCHES - Staff at Ulster Bank face the prospect of being asked to give up their free time to help fix-up branches, the Irish Independent has learned.
Staff at Ulster Bank's UK- based parent, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and at its NatWest unit were this week asked to help out with "painting, tidying up and general DIY" in a bid to improve dilapidated branches. A leaked internal memo says discussions about rolling out the scheme at Ulster Bank are "under way", although sources in Dublin said there are no plans "at the present time" to introduce the initiative here. A request for volunteers originally posted on the UK bank's internal staff website says employees can "join forces to help improve the branch network in Britain" after 400 branches were found to need help with technical and property issues. Work on IT and heating systems will be carried out professionally, but RBS asked "colleagues from across the bank to play their part and help to improve their local RBS or NatWest branch... as part of Branch Force." The scheme is voluntary and it is understood no extra pay is being offered. Staff are asked to take on the DIY work outside their normal hours. Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) general secretary Larry Broderick said he was not aware of a plan to launch Branch Force here, but said it would raise concerns for the union.
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CENTRAL BANK TO SELL LANDMARK DAME STREET HQ - The Central Bank of Ireland plans to put its former headquarters on Dame Street on the market next year as it prepares to move into a new €140 million eco-building. The Dublin 2 building, which opened in 1978, could fetch between €25 million and €30 million, according to property sources says the Irish Times. Along with the sale of two nearby buildings also owned by the bank, this could raise more than €40 million to offset the cost of its new location. The sale will include the plaza in front of the bank. The main Dame Street building requires repairs costing millions to make it suitable for a new tenant. Estate agent Lisney has been appointed to advise the bank on how to sell the seven-storey building over double basement in Temple Bar and to manage its other leased or owned properties as it moves its staff into the new building in Dublin 1. The Department of Health, education groups, multinationals and investors are all believed to have considered Dame Street as headquarters.
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COPPER FACE HITS JACKPOT WITH €5.5m PRE-TAX PROFITS - The millions continued to roll in last year for Ireland’s best-known night spot, Copper Face Jacks. New accounts filed by the night club show that its proven winning formula delivered pre-tax profits of €5.5 million last year, or €15,219 every day, or €106,533 every week. The club - owned by former Garda, Cathal Jackson and housed in the Jackson Court Hotel on Dublin’s Harcourt Street - has long since entered Dublin night time folklore and has amassed a massive cash pile as a result of its popularity, writes the Irish Examiner. The new accounts lodged by the night club’s firm, Breanagh Catering Ltd, show that the firm was sitting on a cash pile of €46.29m at the end of January 31 last. The firm’s cash increased by €3.32m from €42.97m during the year. During the same period - boosted by Dublin’s All-Ireland final football win in September 2013 - the new figures show that the firm’s accumulated profits increased by €4.53m from €54.74m to €59.27m.
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AUTUMN STATEMENT 2014: UK ‘GOOGLE TAX’ TARGETS MULTINATIONALS - UK chancellor George Osborne has targeted tax-avoiding tech companies, banks and London’s high-end property market in his Autumn Statement on the health of the British economy and public finances, writes the Financial Times. Multinationals will face a new 25% levy - the so-called Google tax - on profits from economic activity in the UK that are “artificially shifted” abroad, Mr Osborne said on Wednesday, in a move that aims to raise $1 billion over the next five years. Separately, banks including some US operations in London will be hit by a new £700m-a-year clampdown on a corporation tax rule that has allowed them to move past losses forward for many years. The two partly state-owned banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are among those that could be hard hit. However, the measure was also prompted by foreign banks that had built up losses in their UK offshoots, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The Conservative party chancellor was forced to admit that his plan to cut the deficit was off track but insisted that Britain would be “on course to prosperity” if he was allowed to complete his plan in the next parliament. Rather than staging a pre-election giveaway, Mr Osborne slightly tightened the purse strings as forecasts showed that the deficit this year was set to be a higher than expected £91 billion.
