Allied Irish Banks as well as its Government owner yesterday put the focus on how much the bank will be worth in an impending shares sale.

Michael Noonan’s Department of Finance faces having to endorse a looming pay rise agreement in the coming weeks for 5,500 staff at AIB, the lender bailed out at a cost of €20 billion to taxpayers.

Hopes have emerged that the Irish operations of HSBC will be unaffected by the bank’s plans to cut up to 50,000 jobs from its worldwide operations.

The number of high-fliers at the State-owned AIB with pay packages in excess of €100,000 totalled almost 1,100 at the end of last year.

Telecoms company UPC Ireland is to shed as many as 170 jobs across its facilities as part of a cost-cutting programme.

Bank of Ireland has told 130 staff in its cheque clearing section that the operation is being outsourced following a strategic review.

The union representing the 171 AIB information technology staff who are to be outsourced to three companies, has insisted no transfers will take place unless clear assurances are given about the workers’ job security.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said today that he has no role in making decisions about the workforce in AIB.

A subsidiary of US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management has bought a significant proportion of Royal Bank of Scotland’s remaining Irish property loan portfolio for £1.1bn (€1.38bn), a near 80% discount on the combined gross value of the assets.

Ulster Bank is to close a further 14 branches in early 2015, putting at risk nearly 40 jobs in the process.

Bank of Ireland staff are in line for a pay hike and a pre-Christmas bonus.

Ulster Bank could face significant penalties for the IT failure that left hundreds of thousands of Irish customers without access to their accounts nearly two and a half years ago.

The uncertainty over Ulster Bank’s future has come to an end, with parent group Royal Bank of Scotland confirming that the subsidiary remains a core element of its overall business.

Banking union IBOA has said despite the positive stress tests results for most of the country’s pillar banks, there is still a need for better corporate governance in the major financial institutions.

Ulster Bank has accepted provisional recommendations regarding how it goes about downsizing its operations and reducing headcount.

The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) has called on Ulster Bank to clarify its future following a story in this newspaper about a possible takeover by a private equity firm.

Ulster Bank has confirmed that it is to close a further seven Irish branches, including three in Dublin and one in Cork City.

A group of bank workers are claiming they are being unfairly treated by AIB’s proposed move to remove their company cars.

The special liquidators of the IBRC have set aside a fund valued at €5.5m to provide additional redundancy payments to more than 400 employees.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said he cannot interfere in the dispute between IBRC and its staff over redundancy payments which could see the latter taking industrial action.

Staff at Irish Bank Resolution Corporation could begin industrial action within days unless they are given the redundancy terms which were on offer at the financial institution a little over a year ago.

Workers at IBRC may delay the disposal of the financial institution’s remaining assets unless they are given the redundancy terms that were on offer just over a year ago.

The 110 job losses announced by Ulster Bank yesterday were part of the 950 announced in 2012 in a restructuring of its operations, according to a bank spokesperson.

110 jobs are to go at Ulster Bank's mortgage centres.

The Irish Bank Officials Association has dismissed suggestions that bank officials are being allowed to write off their debt as a myth.

The successful refinancing of the €1.8bn preference shares was another positive credit event which should help improve Ireland’s overall credit rating, said investors.

Ulster Bank is to remain in the Irish retail banking market, with its parent, Royal Bank of Scotland, describing it as a core part of its business.

Up to 290 jobs look likely to be lost at Danske Bank as a result of the financial institution’s decision to significantly scale back its Irish operation.

Danske Bank has today announced that it to wind down its personal and business banking services in Ireland.

As AIB’s shares collapsed by 30% of their value the company informed staff that they are to outsource the work of its Learning and Development programme which employs more than 30 staff.

AIB is to outsource as many as 1,000 jobs, and cannot guarantee they will not go abroad.

The banking sector is looking at outsourcing and consolidation as one of the key solutions to restructuring its Irish operations, with AIB, Danske Bank and Bank of Ireland all considering removing functions from Ireland according to the banking union, IBOA.

The IBOA is to ballot its members in AIB regarding new Labour Court recommendations, which largely support the bank’s planned widespread cost-cutting programme, before the end of this month.

The head of the Irish Bank Officials Association has called for an independent bank inquiry into the collapse of the financial sector instead of the proposed Oireachtas inquiry.

Ulster Bank is to cut employee numbers by up to 1,800 as it unveiled a plan to close dozens of branches.

Ulster Bank has announced up to another 1,800 job cuts and around 40 branch closures under plans to return it to profit within the next three years.

Forty employees of the former Anglo Irish Bank, IBRC in special liquidation, have been made redundant at the bank’s London and Belfast offices.

Uncertainty will hang over the future of Ulster Bank until the UK Treasury conducts a review in the autumn that will decide its fate.

The head of the Irish Bank Officials Association claims that bonuses to senior executives are distorting CSO statistics which indicate rises for financial workers.

Widespread bank strikes are looming if the Government or banks try to impose pay cuts on bank officials over the next few weeks, Larry Broderick, the general secretary of the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA), warned yesterday.

The contentious issue of executive pay will come up at an Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) conference today, which could see the union call for industrial action.

The Irish Bank Officials Association has said the salaries of frontline bank officials cannot be cut, after the publication yesterday of the Mercer Report.

The finance union, the IBOA, is to meet with the special liquidators appointed to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation later, in a dispute over redundancies.

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation employees — who were put on monthly rolling contracts when the liquidation of the company was announced last week — have been told that their jobs are safe for at least the next three months.