Allied Irish Banks is planning to sell its retail branch in New York to M&T, the Buffalo-based bank that has taken over AIB's Baltimore operation, Allfirst, according to bank sources, writes Conor O'Clery in New York.
AIB did not confirm the sale but a spokeswoman in Dublin said an announcement would be made soon.
The AIB branch in Park Avenue has some 30 employees. It is the only retail outlet for an Irish domestic bank in the US.
The bank's not-for-profit business and other operations in New York employing more than 150 people will stay under AIB control, but bank sources predict that up to half the staff will be let go in the coming months.
These will be primarily from support functions such as human resources, accounting and information technology.
The end of the quarter-century presence of any Irish-owned bank will be a source of regret to many Irish and Irish Americans in the city. Bank of Ireland closed its lone Manhattan office some years ago. However, it is understood that only a small minority of accountholders at the Park Avenue branch are Irish.
The first AIB representative office in the US was established by Wyndham W Williams in 1975. Two years later, AIB sent Mr Jerimiah Casey to open a full-branch office at 405 Park Avenue, a few blocks from the Waldorf Hotel.
Mr Casey became chairman of First National Bank of Maryland, later called Allfirst, which AIB acquired outright in March 1989.
M&T has an upper-floor office in Park Avenue and, by taking over AIB's branch, will acquire a pavement-level retail operation in the heart of Manhattan. It has 470 branches throughout New York state, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.
