AIB to seek 150 voluntary redundancies

Redundancies 'short sighted' and 'based solely on their profit margins', union claims

In 2023, AIB made a profit of €2bn as it benefitted from high interest rates. 

AIB has announced it is to seek 150 voluntary redundancies over the next three years as the company records massive profits on the back of higher interest rates.

In a statement, the company said its three-year plan was focusing on “further greening of our loan book and delivering greater operational efficiency”.

“The voluntary redundancies planned are in areas where we can increase efficiency and automation or where fewer colleagues are required given that legacy issues have been largely resolved,” the bank said.

Senior industrial relations officer with the Financial Services Union (FSU) Billy Barrett said staffing levels were already at a “crisis point” in AIB and reducing staff further “will only result in increased anxiety for remaining staff”.

General secretary of the FSU John O’Connell described the announcement of redundancies as “short sighted” and “based solely on their profit margins”.

“If we continue to let individual banks manage the future of our banking services we will be left with a continual withdrawal of banking services which will result in consumers and businesses suffering the consequences,” Mr O’Connell said.

Continually cutting costs and staff is a short-sighted approach to managing the challenges facing the retail banking sector.

Mr O’Connell called on Finance Minister Jack Chambers to re-convene the Banking Forum with relevant stakeholders to discuss the future banking will face. 

Last year, AIB posted an after-tax profit of €2bn as the lender benefitted from the high interest rate environment. This profit compares with the €765m in after-tax profits it made in 2022.

Following this bumper haul, AIB also pledged to distribute a total of €1.7bn to shareholders, which includes €700m in cash by way of dividends. The Government still owns 32.6% of AIB’s shares.