NIB rules out redundancies

Staff at National Irish Bank can breathe a sigh of relief after the firm said it was not planning to make any redundancies. This is in spite of slipping to a €341m pre-tax loss for the first half of 2009 and parent company Danske Bank announcing job cuts.

NIB currently employs 630 full-time staff in Ireland and Andrew Healy, the bank's chief executive, said there were currently no plans to make redundancies (although bonuses are being slashed). But it's continuing to cut back on contractors, and has released 40 temps since the beginning of this year.

The Irish bank incurred impairment charges of €379m, which fuelled the first half loss and contributed a hefty 20% of total bad loans within the Danske Bank group.

The Danish bank said it was going to cut 220 jobs yesterday, although none of these are likely to affect the Irish operation. Danske chief Peter Staarup conceded that "it has obviously not been the right time to enter the Irish market".

However, aside from the downbeat figures, NIB staff should be reassured by the first half results. Danske Bank insists that it remains committed to the Irish market and that it has no plans to offload any of its €10.6bn loan book to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

The current fear is that NAMA will bring about increased consolidation in Ireland's banking sector - leaving Bank of Ireland, AIB and a third firm, possibly made up of Permanent TSB, Irish Nationwide and EBS.

But Staarup said: "We have no plans to abandon the Irish market and we will make our franchise more efficient, waiting for the upturn which will come one day."

Operating costs at NIB currently stand at €63m, compared to €67m during the first half of 2008.