IRISH BANK Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, has signalled its intention to leave the bank’s former head office building on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.
The bank, which took over Irish Nationwide last year, is planning to carry out improvements at the former building society’s head office at Grand Parade, Ranelagh, and move up to 350 staff to the building.
IBRC said it would vacate its St Stephen’s Green offices, the nearby Heritage House and a smaller office on Baggot Street as leases on the properties expire.
It is understood that the leases lapse over the next few years.
The changes in IBRC’s operations emerged as it was reported that State-controlled AIB may seek up to 2,500 redundancies, 500 more than signalled last year.
The further job losses partly arise from overlapping roles with EBS, which AIB took over last year, according to Bloomberg.
The announcement of the biggest redundancy programme by an Irish bank is said to be imminent, although the bank and the Department of Finance declined to comment on the timing. The Irish Bank Officials Association said it was seeking urgent meetings with the department and AIB.
IBRC owns the Grand Parade building following Anglo’s takeover of Irish Nationwide. The property, which was originally built as the head office of the Carrolls tobacco group, was bought by the building society under chief executive Michael Fingleton in 1996.
A tender issued by IBRC said it was seeking a contractor for “repair and remediation works” on the eight-storey building, an adjacent property and three warehouses at the back of the building.
IBRC declined to disclose how much it was spending on the refurbishment, saying that this was “commercially sensitive”. The bank said the work on the property, which was built in the early 1960s, would take about six months.
“Following the completion of these essential works, the Grand Parade property will be available to accommodate up to 350 employees,” IBRC said.
“The bank intends relocating some of its staff to this building as leases on its existing premises expire thereby further reducing the cost to the taxpayer.”
IBRC leases the ground, first and third floors of St Stephen’s Court, which was replaced as the head office in favour of Connaught House on Burlington Road, where Anglo’s private bank was located.
The plans for IBRC’s properties coincide with a dramatic decline in staff levels. Employee numbers have fallen from 1,800 at Anglo’s peak in 2008, under chairman Seán FitzPatrick and chief executive David Drumm, to 1,200 today,
The headcount is expected to fall to between 600 and 700 by the end of the year through 350 redundancies and departing staff not being replaced as the bank proceeds with its 10-year wind-down.
