In some more bad news for the banking industry on the Emerald Isle, Ulster Bank have announced they are to close around 20 (correction - the number is now 22) branches/sub-offices island wide.
Image created using a photo by "Images_of_Money" found on flickr
As the 3rd largest bank in Ireland, Ulster Bank currently operate 146 branches south of the border and 90 in Northern Ireland. The decision has come as part of the company’s recent review of their branch network. The Irish Bank Officials’ Association has indicated that the ROI and NI will see roughly half of the closures each.
In 2015, the bank was forced to write off £1bn in bad loans, mostly involving property. Last January it announced plans to shed 950 jobs over the course of 2016 - 350 in Northern Ireland and 600 in the Republic. However, the high profile IT problems experienced in the summer caused the redundancy plans to be delayed.
Ulster Bank did stress that they have no further plans for redundancies beyond the 950 announced last year.
No detail of the branch closures have been revealed yet. A spokesman for Ulster Bank explained:
“We continue to keep our branch network under review to ensure that we are operating in the correct locations for our customers,” said a statement from the bank.
“As part of this review we will be closing in the region of 20 branches and sub offices on the island of Ireland in 2024. We expect to be in a position to provide further details in the next few weeks and will communicate directly with our customers and employees at that time.”
Ulster Bank is likely very keen to see many customers begin using internet and mobile banking in the UK and Ireland.
In November the National Irish Bank closed all of its branches and rebranded to Danske Bank (the name of its Danish owners), switching entirely to servicing customers via post offices, internet banking and phone banking.
Over the course of 2016 several other major banks announced branch closures on the island. In July TSB Permanent announced it was planning to close 19 of its 92 branches with around 250 job losses. Allied Irish Banks has already closed 51 of its 267 branches with another 16 set to close over the coming months.
This all comes on top of a raft of closures of small banks which folded during the financial crisis.
It looks like many Irish customers will have to get used to the idea of either doing their banking at the post office or using phone or internet banking.
Are you planning to start doing your banking online or over the phone? If so feel free to let us know your feelings about it.
UPDATE 17/1/16 - Branches/sub-offices to be closed - 22 in total:
The Republic of Ireland closures:
Belturbet (Co Cavan), Castlepollard (Co Westmeath); Glenamaddy (Co Galway), Killeshandra (Co Cavan) and Kilnaleck (Co Cavan), together with the following sub-offices: Carrigallen (Co Cavan), Delvin (Co Westmeath), Kilcormac (Co Offaly), Kilkelly (Co Mayo), Rathangan (Co Kildare) and Swanlinbar (Co Cavan).
Northern Ireland closures:
Carryduff near Belfast, Dromore in Co. Tyrone, Harryville near Ballymena, Jordanstown near Belfast, Knock near Belfast, Longstone Street in Lisburn, and Shaftesbury Square in Belfast City; together with the following sub-offices: Ardglass in Co. Down, Moy in Co Armagh. Rosslea in Co. Fermanagh and Saintfield in Co Down.
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January 15, 2024
banking, business, Eurozone Crisis Timeline, finance, news