ALLIED IRISH Banks plans to relocate the head office of its subsidiary, EBS, from the former building society’s premises on Burlington Road in Dublin to AIB’s head office at Bankcentre in Ballsbridge to cut costs.
David Hodgkinson, executive chairman of AIB, confirmed in an e-mail to staff yesterday that AIB had decided, following a detailed review, to continue running EBS separately and to retain the subsidiary’s own branch network.
“It is the intention that operational savings will be made in order to ensure that the funds invested by the taxpayer are fully focused on serving our customers,” he said.
“We must also avoid duplication and pool resources where possible.”
A spokesman for the bank would not comment on whether this would involve job losses.
Mr Hodgkinson said there would be “career opportunities” for AIB and EBS staff to work on “delivering the strategy for both entities” as part of the process of integrating functions.
AIB confirmed in April that there would be 2,000 redundancies at the bank but has yet to identify where the job cuts will fall.
The bank has set up a “steering group” to find the best way of making the functions of AIB and EBS work together. This will take a “best of both” approach, Mr Hodgkinson said.
EBS, which is run by its chief executive, Fergus Murphy, will move its head office to AIB Bankcentre by the end of 2012.
“This will be done on a phased basis over the period,” he said.
AIB acquired EBS in July to form one of the two so-called “pillars” of Irish banking under the Government’s plan to restructure the sector.
The Government has injected a total of €20.7 billion into the combined bank, which is 99.8 per cent owed by the State.
AIB has about 14,000 staff, while EBS employs 634, including 480 in head office.
The EBS head office building is owned by Hardwicke Developments.
The next break-date on the building’s lease is 2017 but EBS will seek to sub-let the building.
There are 268 AIB branches while there are 100 EBS-branded outlets, including 42 tied agents, the equivalent of franchisees.
AIB is seeking to install Irishman David Duffy, a former senior executive at Dutch bank ING Barings and Standard Bank International, as its new chief executive, once his appointment and pay have been approved by the Department of Finance.
