Bank told handling of closure a ‘decency failure’

ULSTER Bank executives have been told the way the closure announcement of the bank was handled represented a decency failure and a respect failure.

And it was not credible a decision was made overnight to close the bank.

The bank’s chief executive Jane Howard told staff in a memo last Thursday no decision had been made to shut the operation here.

But the next morning it was confirmed by Ulster Bank and its parent NatWest that it was closing. This came after five months of reports that it was likely to be wound up.

Labour’s Ged Nash said it was hardly the case that a decision was taken overnight by bank bosses to cease operations here. “A decision of this magnitude is not made overnight,” he told Ulster Bank executives when they appeared before the Oireachtas Finance Committee. It comes after the bombshell confirmation from the British-owned bank last week that it is shutting down in this country. Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty echoed the sentiments of the Financial Services Union (FSU) that described the handling of the announcement of the closure as a case of a “humanity failure, a decency failure and a respect failure”.

Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan, Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín and Sinn Féin’s Mairéad Farrell told the committee the bank staff and customers were treated shabbily. The FSU accused the bank of failing customers and putting profit ahead of staff well-being.

Committee chairman John McGuinness (Fianna Fáil) heard the union accuse the bank of “deplorable behaviour” in the months leading up to its decision to exit the Irish banking market.

The union said the bank’s actions should be addressed at the highest level of Government and by the Central Bank. FSU general secretary John O’Connell said the bank owner NatWest “deliberately” decided not to engage with staff or their representative groups when they were carrying out a strategic review of their operations in Ireland.

Ms Howard admitted that the failure of the bank, over a five-month period, to confirm it was closing added to distress for customers and staff. She claimed the bank was bound by “confidentiality restrictions”.