Irish Life & Permanent has received more redundancy applications than the 350 it sought in its unprofitable banking unit.

The lender Permanent TSB’s voluntary redundancy offer closes this week. More than 200 of 230 employees who transferred to the bank when it acquired €3.6 billion in deposits from Irish Nationwide Building Society in February have applied for redundancy, according to sources.

“We’ll provide an update when appropriate,” a spokesman for Irish Life said, declining to comment further.

The group is likely to be broken up, with the banking arm being taken into State ownership. – (Bloomberg)