Halifax closure dates revealed

BANK OF Scotland Ireland (BoSI) has announced the closure dates for its 44 Halifax branches.

The closures will take place in two phases – 21 branches will close on Friday, June 18th, with the remaining 23 branches closing on Wednesday, June 23rd. Customers have until June 18th to close their accounts.

The branches which will close on June 18th are: Ashbourne, Ballincollig, Ballyfermot, Castlebar, Citywest (Dublin), Clonmel, Dundalk, Dungarvan, Ennis, Gorey, Letterkenny, Maynooth, Midleton, Monaghan, Mullingar, Newbridge, Northside (Dublin), Portlaoise, Sandyford (Dublin), Terenure (Dublin) and Tullamore.

The branches which will close on June 23rd are: Athlone, Bray, Carlow, Cavan, Clondalkin (Dublin), College Green (Dublin), Cork, Drogheda, Dún Laoghaire, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Naas, Navan, Nutgrove (Dublin), Omni Park (Dublin), Sligo, St Stephen’s Green (Dublin), Swords, Tallaght, Tralee, Waterford and Wexford.

The bank said that all customers will receive written correspondence from the company by April 14th, detailing how the closure of the branches affects their accounts and outlining the options available to them.

The bank is encouraging customers who want to speed up the process of account closure to visit their nearest branch or the bank’s website.

BoSI also announced yesterday that the Halifax branches will cease opening on Saturdays after April 10th.

Last month, BoSI, which is owned by the part-nationalised UK bank Lloyds, announced that it was to close its 44 Halifax branches in Ireland with the loss of 750 jobs, approximately half of its Irish workforce.

The bank is cutting 400 jobs across the nationwide Halifax branch network, 220 jobs at a specialist finance unit in the head office on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin, and 130 posts at its customer service centre in Dundalk.

The bank said it was withdrawing from the Irish retail banking market after a review found that Halifax was too small to survive as a result of the financial crisis and the recession.

The announcement of the closure came just four years after the Halifax chain was opened.

The closure is forcing more than 50,000 credit card and current account customers to move their business elsewhere.

Some 40,000 to 45,000 customers can retain their mortgages with the bank but they must move to a new lender if they seek to remortgage or top up their loans.

The bank has about 7 per cent of the Irish mortgage market.

BoSI was regarded as one of the most aggressive and highly competitive lenders during the decade-long property boom.

The bank introduced tracker mortgages to the Irish market, driving down the cost of home loans and profit margins.