Union predicts 5,000 job losses but gives Nama qualified support

THE IRISH Bank Officials Association (IBOA), which represents 23,000 staff, has given “qualified support” to the Government’s Nama “bad bank” plan.

Larry Broderick, general secretary of the association, said Nama and the inevitable consolidation across the banking sector would lead to about 5,000 job losses.

The association believes consolidation will most likely lead to a combining of the building societies, EBS and Irish Nationwide, with Irish Life Permanent and the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank.

The union’s support for Nama was “conditional” on a major change of culture within banking, he said, and guarantees that bank staff who had no role in bad lending decisions were protected.

The IBOA is seeking widespread changes to the boards of the banks and the appointment of bank directors by the regulator.

Mr Broderick said that Nama was “the most realistic option”.

Full nationalisation of Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks (AIB), which has been proposed by the Labour Party as an alternative to Nama, was “the worst option available”, he said, and would lead to 10,000 job losses or more.

Greater State ownership of the banks was “inevitable” following Nama, he said, but nationalisation would be “Armageddon for the economy and the industry”.

Fine Gael’s plan to create a national recovery or “good” bank had been proposed “too late”, said Mr Broderick, and would require six months for approval from the EU Commission. “The idea has value but you have to get rid of the toxic assets first,” he said.

Mr Broderick said the association would support Nama if it included a means to monitor additional lending by the banks.

The union is backing a call by economist Colm McCarthy for the creation of a public inquiry into how the banking crisis arose.

The IBOA also wants a whistleblowers’ charter to protect staff in the financial services sector, appropriate protection for mortgage borrowers who cannot meet their repayments and the development of a strategy for the banks’ future.

The union also wants any redundancies arising from Nama and consolidation to be voluntary.