AIB blames shift to digital for decision to close 15 branches

IRELAND’S biggest bank, AIB, announced yesterday that it is shutting 15 of its branches, in the face of a collapse in the number of people using them.

Most of the branches set to shut are in Cork and Dublin, including its O’Connell Street bank.

The decision was immediately condemned yesterday by the bank workers’ union, the Financial Services Union.

The FSU said the closures, along with more than 100 recently announced by Bank of Ireland, will leave the country ‘without a functioning bank branch network’.

The State still holds more than 70% of shares in AIB from its multi-billion-euro bailout a decade ago, which Labour’s finance spokesman Ged Nash said meant the Government should ‘quickly step in and use this leverage’ to stop the closures.

AIB has blamed the closures on the fact people are not using branches as much now, but the FSU said it should not use figures from the past 15 months because the pandemic has skewed the data.

AIB described the shift to digital banking as ‘unrelenting over the last number of years’ and a spokesman said: ‘AIB has completed a detailed strategic review due to changes in how customers interact with banks, a trend that has been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.’

The closures will be completed by December this year.

The vast majority are in urban and suburban locations, mostly in Dublin and Cork, with one exception.

The bank explained: ‘At a time of negative interest rates and competition from nontraditional lenders, the strategy is another step towards ensuring a sustainable future for AIB’s branch network.

‘AIB remains committed to its branch network, will maintain a strong presence in the communities it serves, and with 170 remaining branches will continue to have the largest branch network in the country. The continued shift from branch usage to digital banking has been an industrywide trend in recent years – accelerated dramatically due to the Covid-19 pandemic.’

It assured staff there will be no compulsory redundancies.

Despite the Government’s large shareholding, Finance

‘We don’t have role in decisions’

Minister Paschal Donohoe insisted it cannot intervene in AIB’s decision to close branches. ‘The Labour Party well know that no shareholder has a role with regard to commercial decisions,’ he said in response to Mr Nash’s pleas to intervene.

‘They know that any shareholder in a bank, including even a large shareholder as we are with AIB, does not have the ability to intervene in a commercial decision.’