100 jobs disappear in an ominous refinement of Ireland's retail banking model; 100 new insurance jobs being created

National Irish Bank (NIB) fired a worrying opening salvo on what may be a whole round of retail banking redundancies last week. Citing a radically changed Irish banking environment, it closed its entire network of 27 branches and replaced them with 9, 'personal banking units.'

The move led to the loss of at least 100 Irish banking jobs.

The new personal banking units will have extended opening hours from 8am and to 8pm and will be accessible by prior appointment. NIB's head of business development said fewer and fewer customers want to go into branches and that more of them are doing business by phone or internet. The future looks a little ominous for other retail banking branch staff in the Republic.

The good news

In better news, finance jobs are also being created in Ireland.

GloHealth, an insurance company, is creating another 105 jobs over the next 3 to 4 years. The company has just launched in Ireland with the backing of Irish Life, and aims to become the country's fourth largest healthcare insurance provider.