National Australia Bank will centralise the back office support staff functions for Northern Bank and National Irish Bank (NIB) at Dunmurry, Co Antrim. Its operational service centre at Kelleaton, Dunmurry, has been expanded to facilitate the additional support services operation and will employ 42 additional staff.

Announcing the centralisation yesterday, Northern Bank chairman Sir David Fell said it made financial sense to centralise these functions. "It will mean an expansion of its expert services, such as account maintenance, standing order and direct debit processing, and voucher retrieval to customers in the Republic," he said.

NIB is under pressure to reverse the decline in profitability of its operations. The bank reported a drop of almost 40 per cent in profits to £9 million (€11.4 million) in the six months to the end of March.