Will First Active be the next victim of the recession?

sitstill

From Breakingnews.ie

Fears for First Active jobs
Fears were growing for hundreds of jobs at an Irish financial institution today as bank chiefs review global operations.

Leading mortgage lender First Active is expected to be a victim of Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) restructuring programme, which could axe up to 10,000 jobs worldwide.

First Active and Ulster Bank form the Ulster Bank Group in the Republic of Ireland and are part of RBS – which last week announced a record loss in UK corporate history.

The company’s cost-cutting plans are expected to overhaul its Irish operations and could result in the two banks merging and many of First Active’s 60 branches in the Republic closing.

In a statement, Ulster Bank Group said no announcement would be made until staff and unions are informed of any changes.

“Like many businesses, Ulster Bank Group is having to respond to prevailing market conditions and review how we operate our business,” said a spokeswoman.

“However, we consult with our employees and their representative bodies ahead of any specific announcements as a matter of policy.”

In January 2004 RBS Group paid €887m for First Active, which was the first lender to launch 100% mortgages to Irish house buyers.

As the country’s building boom burst, the Irish economy spiralled in to a recession and the company’s profits dropped.

It is understood Ulster Bank is taking the action to strengthen its overall finances in the face of the damaging credit crunch.

Earlier this month scandal-hit Anglo Irish Bank had to be nationalised by the Government after it emerged chairman Sean FitzPatrick concealed loans totalling €129m between 2000-2007.

Last week shares in RBS also collapsed in the wake of the British Government’s latest rescue bid and news the bank is facing the worst loss history.

RBS estimated bad debts and write-downs on the value of past acquisitions could leave it as much as €20.9bn in the red for 2008.

(http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhsngbcweysn/)

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I hope not, I have an account there and I really like the brand.

rameire

same story in the sunday times.

they really should have merged the brands earlier.

make ub the everyday banking side
and make fa the long term investment and mortgage side, would make more sense.
they will close most fa branches where there is a ub store close by,
they even opened a few stores last year and were supposed to open a few this year.
most people who work for fa are are actually contracted to ub, so there are not that many who are contacted to fa, so most people will be redeployed within the ub service side, the fa people will have to make the hard choice of become ub or join the dole queue.

Tony Broke

I have some money, ( small enough amount ) in Ulster Bank, should I take it out asap?

rameire

no its safe where it is, the bank is not going bust,
its a cost cutting exercise.

BuffyBot

See: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055381113

As for post #3, this is why we don't allow speculative threads.