AIB to move 1,000 staff to HQ in Ballsbridge

AIB IS set to vacate the IFSC building it bought in 1988 as part of a consolidation which will save the bank € 18 million a year and will involve the relocation of some 1,000 staff over four years.

According to an e-mail distributed to staff, a “number of head office functions” will relocate to the bank’s headquarters at Bankcentre in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, as part of the ongoing transformation programme.

AIB’s existing structure, whereby head office functions are spread out over several buildings in the city, is “no longer appropriate from a cost perspective”, the bank said, given that it will be a “smaller organisation in the future”.

The first members of staff to be relocated will be those engaged in the treasury and capital markets functions at the AIB International Centre in the financial services centre, and Riverside buildings on the south docks.

They are expected to relocate to Bankcentre by the middle of July next year.

The move means the bank will no longer have any staff based in the financial services centre building. AIB sold its international outsourcing business, AIB International Financial Services (IFS), which is also based in the building, to Capita for €33 million earlier this month.

AIB was one of the original anchor tenants of the IFSC development, agreeing to buy one of the first buildings, AIB International Centre, back in 1988. It then sold this as part of a sale and leaseback transaction in 2003.

According to a company filing, the lease is held under a 25-year agreement with a break clause in 2013.

AIB also sold Bankcentre as part of a sale and leaseback deal in 2006. It was “ originally designed to accommodate the needs of a larger business” and, as such, now has “spare capacity”. This, according to the bank, can be used to reduce the bank’s costs and increase its ability to “work together as a single team”.

The decision to consolidate staff in the one location will also likely lead to relocation of the 3,200 staff within Bankcentre, and may lead to “compromises in terms of space in order to accommodate teams in appropriate configurations”.

According to the bank, the consolidation of Bankcentre is one of a number of actions being taken as part of the programme which is responsible for ensuring that AIB becomes more efficient and “suited to its future business focus”.

The bank, which is now 93 per cent owned by the State, announced plans to cut more than 2,000 jobs by the end of 2012 earlier this year.

It is also continuing with its plans to divest non-core assets. In addition to the sale of AIB IFS, it also sold AIB Jerseytrust Limited to Capita this month.