PERMANENT TSB, the country’s largest mortgage lender, is cutting up to 350 jobs from its workforce of 1,800 in response to a shrinking banking market and narrower interest margins on loans.

The loss-making bank is seeking to reduce its headcount by about 300 and will offer redeployment opportunities to 100 other staff.

The company is seeking the redundancies on a voluntary basis at the head office in Dublin and across the lender’s 92 branches.

Dave Guinane, chief executive of the lender, said that the bank would seek the redundancies as part of “a plan to secure the future of Permanent TSB”.

The job cuts amount to about a fifth of the company’s staff.

Similar-sized reductions in staff numbers at the main banks, Bank of Ireland and AIB, would lead to a total of about 8,000 job losses across the two institutions.

Senior management at Permanent TSB were briefed about the cost-cutting plans at a meeting yesterday afternoon, while staff will be informed about the details today and over the coming days.

A spokesman for Irish Life and Permanent, the owner of Permanent TSB, declined to comment.

The company has reduced its workforce by about 400 over the past two years through smaller redundancy programmes and by not replacing departing staff.

The Unite trade union said that it had held talks with senior management at Permanent TSB but declined to comment yesterday.

Consultancy firm Accenture carried out a review of Permanent TSB revenue and costs last year.

The lender had planned to make an announcement once a decision had been made on the sale of rival EBS, of which Permanent TSB is one of two final bidders. The company decided to bring forward the redundancy announcement due to the delay in the Government’s sale of EBS.

Larry Broderick, general secretary of the Irish Bank Officials Association, said that almost 7,000 jobs had been lost at the banks since the autumn of 2008 and at least 2,000 more would be cut “in the near future”.