Ulster Bank chief has not ruled out job losses

THE CHIEF executive of Ulster Bank has not ruled out further job losses among the bank’s 6,000-strong workforce as it carries out a review of its operations to reduce costs.

In his first public interview since taking up his role in April, Jim Brown said Ulster Bank needed to cut costs “to simplify how we do business” and to “become more fit to compete”.

“I wouldn’t rule job losses out but it is not something that we have formed a view on,” he said.

Ulster Bank, which is owned by part-nationalised UK bank Royal Bank of Scotland, reduced its headcount by 1,000 in 2009 in response to the financial crisis.

“When we get to the stage where we are clear on exactly what we want to do, then we will engage with the appropriate parties and work through that at the time,” said Mr Brown.

“But it is a little too early to say yet. I think we will have a clear idea in the next month or two.”

Mr Brown said the bank had received further capital support from RBS on top of the €7 billion injected up to the end of last year, but declined to say how much. The capital is to cover losses of £566 million (€656 million) for the first half of the year as Ulster Bank wrote down more bad loans due to further falls in property values.

Mr Brown said Ulster Bank was considering new options to help mortgage borrowers in arrears including another way of splitting mortgages to reduce repayments.

The bank, one of the top-three mortgage lenders during the boom, has agreed forbearance measures on 12,000 of its 170,000 residential mortgages.

This has included moving customers to interest-only loans or the deferral of interest on mortgages for a short time, he said.