Ulster Bank is to cut 175 senior management roles.

Ulster Bank chief executive Jane Howard said house prices will not crash in the Republic if Britain were to quit the EU without a deal at Halloween and that the bank was seeing no evidence of a loans slowdown.

Around 10,000 Ulster Bank customers are paying one of the highest mortgage rates in the eurozone, at 4.3%, despite opportunities to move to a lower band, the lender has said.

Ulster Bank is expected to sell off more non-performing loans in order to reach a European Central Bank target.

Ulster Bank’s profits improved in the first quarter of the year, but ongoing Brexit uncertainty and heightening competition in the UK has increased the pressure on its parent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Philip O’Leary, managing partner of Cork law firm FitzGerald Legal & Advisory, has been appointed as a board member to the Irish Banking Culture Board (IBCB), funded by Ireland’s five main retail banks with the aim of rebuilding trust in the sector.

The new board set up to improve banking culture is "rigged" in favour of the lenders and not customers, one of the industry's biggest critics has claimed.

The financial adviser credited as one of the architects in exposing the €1bn tracker mortgage scandal has insisted he “will not become a member of the club” when joining the newly established banking culture board.