2,000 jobs to be shed over 18 months but few branch closures on the cards

AIB has confirmed its intention to shed more than 2,000 jobs over the coming year-and-a-half, as it looks to continue cutting its operating costs, but the bank is not envisaging any significant closures in its branch network.

News of the job cuts came as no real surprise, yesterday, and their detail was pretty much in line with speculation.

AIB’s executive chairman David Hodgkinson said most of the redundancies would, hopefully, be agreed on a voluntary footing and phased in over the remainder of 2011 and over the course of 2012. However, he said some mandatoryredundancies may occur, if necessary.