Bank of Ireland has announced that it intends to close 28 Service Centres around the country by the end of the year.
The service centres employ about 420 people and provide administration and support services for the organisation.
It is believed that the closures would result in 200 job losses.
Work carried out at the centres will be centralised to an alternative location, Bank of Ireland said.
The bank also said today it plans to increase the number of people working in its branches and contact centres as it continues to streamline the organisation, and increase focus on "customer facing roles".
It said that employees affected by the closure of the services centres can apply for other jobs in the bank's operations.
Bank of Ireland said that various options - including voluntary retirement and early retirement - will be discussed with staff and line managers over the coming weeks.
The bank said its 250 branch network will be not be affected by news of the service centre closures.
The Financial Services Union has expressed its opposition to Bank of Ireland’s decision.
The FSU says while there will be opportunities for a proportion of staff to redeploy in the Bank their future is unclear and this is a major concern.
Senior Industrial Relations Officer Maeve Brehony said: "Our primary concern is for our members’ continued employment in the counties and communities they have loyally served for many years. FSU have been challenging the Bank on staffing levels throughout the retail network for a considerable time now. We simply do not accept that a significant number of job losses are tenable."
FSU General Secretary, Dermot Ryan said: "We have an agreement in place with Bank of Ireland that any redundancies will be on a voluntary basis. However, this shouldn't be taken to mean that we will accept any level of redundancy once it adheres to that agreement.
"In the coming weeks our Union will be making this clear to Bank of Ireland and we will be fighting to retain our members' jobs," he said.
