Pity the staff at State-owned ACCBank. One day, they were eyeing a tidy windfall of around £40,000 (€51,000) on the back of the proposed merger with TSB Bank and subsequent flotation, the next they are staring the possibility of redundancies in the face.

The acrimony surrounding the proposed merger, with rows over parity of esteem, technology and management structure, meant many within the bank viewed with a degree of relief the collapse of merger talks when the Government decided the diminishing perception of banking sector would make a successful flotation less likely.

With the benefit of hindsight, parties on either side may be ruing their stances at that time now that branch closures, a withdrawal from certain core business areas and job losses loom.