Big merger-led redundancies coming to Ireland?

The mooted takeover of Irish Life and Permanent by Bank of Ireland has moved a step closer with news that JC Flowers and Carlyle are preparing to buy a stake in the bank with a view to engineering the merger.

Meanwhile, AIB has been tipped to absorb EBS and Irish Nationwide and the Bank of Ireland has also been matched with Anglo Irish Bank. NCB Stockbrokers say consolidation is now 'inevitable.'

There will be inevitable overlaps. The most obvious are on the retail side, with all organisations involved in the consolidation having large retail branches.

BoI, IL&P and Anglo are all active in asset management and wealth management. All three have these functions, with Bank of Ireland obviously the largest. Cuts here would be seem likely.

However, Eamonn Hughes, analyst at Goodbody Stockbrokers, is more upbeat: "The Regulator's core objective may be to create two national champions in due course, into which the smaller banks are folded. Banks that are currently overweight commercial may be matched with more retailed oriented institutions and those with an overweight of retail may be balanced with more commercial."

The Irish Banking Officials Association (IBOA) has called for the banks to end uncertainty regarding the future of its employees and described the current talk of mergers as "disconcerting" for staff.

"The information deficit that has now been created will do nothing to bring stability to the Irish Banking industry," IBOA general secretary, Larry Broderick said