Shock and anger as over 100 BoI branches to shut
THERE was a strong backlash yesterday against Bank of Ireland’s announcement of plans to close 103 branches across the country – with communities and hundreds of staff set to be impacted by the decision.
Following on from last month’s shock to the Irish banking system, with NatWest revealing it will shut all Ulster Bank branches in the Republic, the Bank of Ireland decision has been described as ‘bad news for Irish banking’.
The ‘pillar’ bank is to move services facing closure to the post office network in the coming months. This follows a deal with An Post to offer customers access to banking services at more than 900 locations. The number of outlets in the Republic will reduce by 88 – from 257 to 169 – and Northern branches will be cut by 15, from 28 to 13. Services in the North will be taken over by the Royal Mail post office network.
Bank of Ireland said the majority of the branches that are closing don’t offer a counter service. Bank of Ireland group chief executive Francesca McDonagh said: ‘Technology is evolving and customers are using branches less, year on year on year. Covid-19 has accelerated this... and we’ve seen a seismic shift towards digital banking over the past 12 months.’
Asked about the extra business the deal will bring to post offices, Postmasters’ Union general secretary Ned O’Hara said: ‘Of course we will welcome it, but we also recognise the effect it will have on the Bank of Ireland staff... It is additional business for the post office network, but it’s not instant business and is not going to happen until sometime in the future – September, I think.’
He added: ‘We haven’t had any discussions with An Post because they were under a non-disclosure agreement, so they were signed up to secrecy on it, they couldn’t tell us anything about it.’
Postmasters expect the deal to be worth about €2million a year to them, which is the value of a similar AIB deal with the post office network. It is an average of just €2,100 a year, which each of the 940 post offices will earn in transaction handling fees.
The post offices also handle banking transactions for An Post
Money accounts. Among those hitting out at the Bank of Ireland decision yesterday was Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall, who said the announcement was ‘bad news for Irish banking’.
‘The closure of the branches will further sever the connection between banking and the communities they serve,’ the TD said.
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty TD described the closures across as ‘the wrong decision at the worst possible time’.
He said: ‘This comes in the teeth of a global pandemic and less than two weeks after Ulster Bank announced its withdrawal from the southern market. It is a huge blow for customers and staff.’
Meanwhile, Jean O’Dowd, regional officer with the Unite union, said: ‘Today’s announcement has not only come as a shock to Bank of Ireland’s loyal and committed workforce, it is also a blow to communities around Ireland, and especially to elderly and vulnerable people who depend on physical banking services. Unite is shocked that Bank of Ireland would take such a decision during a pandemic when communities are more dependent than ever on local services... Unite would urge Bank of Ireland to put any decision regarding branch closures on hold pending a full and transparent consultation process involving all stakeholders. ’
Defending the move, Ms McDonagh said Bank of Ireland had reached a ‘tipping point’ between online and offline banking, with its mobile app the most popular way to bank. In contrast, the number of people visiting branches has ‘sharply declined’ and is now just over half of what it was in 2017.
‘We know news like this can cause concern for some customers
‘Bad news for Irish banking’ ‘Two hundred staff impacted’
and for the communities that we serve,’ she said, adding that no branches will close in the next six months, so the bank can communicate the changes afoot with its loyal customers.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Ms McDonagh said there will be no compulsory redundancies as a result of the branch closures.
‘Two hundred people, colleagues, are impacted. They have choices. If they want to work in another branch they can work in another part of the business and obviously new ways of working means people have more access to jobs in different locations,’ she said. ‘Or if they choose they can take voluntary redundancy.’
Ms McDonagh said the closures will start in September.
An Post’s Debbie Byrne said: ‘This further advances our mission to provide community banking on the doorstep for the customers and communities we serve.’