IE
Bank of Scotland (Ireland) cuts 750 jobs as it retreats from retail banking
9 February 2010
Bank of Scotland (Ireland) is set to cut 750 jobs after closing its retail network to focus on corporate and commercial lending activities.
The cuts are severe, and are already causing a lot of consternation within Ireland's financial services sector, but cannot come as a complete surprise considering the ongoing restructuring within its parent company Lloyds Banking Group.
All 44 BoSI branches, which operate under the Halifax brand, will be closed in the Republic, meaning 750 redundancies to take effect by July. 450 jobs will go at a branch level, as well as 130 call centre positions and a further 220 within the bank's Dublin HQ.
The bank employs 1,600 in Ireland, and it's thought that the 850 jobs within the commercial and corporate banking functions will be safe.
Chief executive Joe Higgins says the decision to focus purely on this area was because "it is our greatest area of expertise and one which has a deep and developed customer base."
The news comes just two days after union Unite made a case for a four-way merger between EBS Building Society, Irish Nationwide, Permanent TSB and BoSI. It said the addition of BoSI would give the 'third force' in banking enough heft to compete with Bank of Ireland and AIB when it comes to lending to small businesses.
The union has expressed its outrage at the announcement and said it would fight the closures and job losses.
"Our workforce is made up of partners; of people who left secure jobs on the promise of a long stable future; and of many returning sons and daughters who took the opportunity to return to Ireland and reunite their families," said Bernard Daly, secretary of Unite.
Its ironic that the redundancies are in retail banking and low level business finance - none of these business units contributed to the Banking crisis but they are the ones to loose their jobs.
SME and Corporate appear to remain untouched - I feel sorry for their staff who work very hard and are losing their jobs.
The Irish government needs to start amending legislation/policy immediately to get people off the dole as the siutuation in Ireland is only going to get worse this year!
MRPD 10 Feb 2010
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