Don't panic - huge cuts at Anglo Irish are not imminent

Any potential job cuts at Anglo Irish Bank are still likely to be phased in over a number of years, despite comments from Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan yesterday that the bank would be closed in "within weeks".

Honohan's radio interview yesterday was reason enough to set hearts racing among Anglo staff. He said that the nameplate of the bank would be removed within weeks and that the bank would be closed "as quickly as we can do it".

A statement from the Central Bank later clarified this, saying that it was drawing up a "revised restructuring proposal" for Anglo and that any wind-down would be over a "multi-year period".

This restructuring plan is likely to see Anglo rebranded and changed into an asset recovery vehicle, with the 'good' funding bank plans shelved, according to comments from its chairman Alan Dukes.

Bleak times indeed, but this doesn't mean that Anglo staff should immediately start looking for new employment.

Mike Aynsley, the bank's chief executive, yesterday tried to reassure the bank's employees, saying that any decision to close the bank is subject to approval from "multiple parties including the European Commission, the Central Bank and the Department of Finance and the NTMA".

In any normal circumstances Anglo would be facing an exodus of talent - this is essentially a sugar-coated way of telling employees that their job will be redundant eventually, even if it does take years.

But with all the other domestic lenders in hot water, recruitment activity in the domestic banking sector has ground to a halt. Waiting to be pushed seems like the sensible option.

"Anglo staff have been facing the prospect of unemployment for the last 18 months, and we still haven't seen a rush to get out," says one financial services headhunter in Dublin. "Yes, their jobs will be eliminated eventually, but at the moment it's a question of having nowhere else to go."