Bank of Ireland is to close almost a quarter of the branches of its British-based subsidiary Bristol and West building society by early next year.
A spokesperson for Bank of Ireland confirmed this morning staff at the bank have been told of the decision to close 36 out of 133 branches at its wholly wned subsidiary.
The move is part of a €35 million restructuring of Bank of Ireland's British operations.
Bristol and West employs about 4,000 people. A decision has not yet been made on which branches will close and therefore the exact number of redundancies is not yet known.
A spokesperson for Bank of Ireland said the restructuring at Bristol and West would be completed early in 2004.
Earlier this week, Bank of Ireland announced a 10-year joint venture with the UK Post Office. Under the deal Bank of Ireland will sell personal loans, mortgages, savings accounts and credit cards through its the UK Post Office's 16,900 branches under a €176 million deal.