1,500 Jobs Axed

Union slams bank move to cut costs

- Pat Flanagan

The country’s biggest bank – which is majority State-owned is set to cut 1,500 jobs in an effort to reduce operating costs.

AIB will also merge some of its Dublin branches and pull out of small business lending in the UK.

The bank will also leave three of its six Dublin head offices and plans to merge five overlapping branches in three urban locations.

Earlier this year, the lender revealed plans to reduce its staff by 1,500 over three years in a bid to lower costs and increase its profit margin, but the strategy was put on hold due to the pandemic.

AIB, which is 71% State-owned, will now restart the plan to cut around 1,500 of its 9,500 staff early next year.

Chief executive Colin Hunt said yesterday: “We have seen something of the order of 10 years of change in the space of 10 months.