AIB close eight branches and hike mortgage rates

AS PART of a nationwide restructuring in response to “customer needs”, AIB will close eight branches in Limerick city and county after the bank confirmed that 67 branches will close around the country.  There will be no compulsory job losses. Branches in Drumcollogher, Glin, Doon, William Street and Corbally will close by the end of the year, while those in Croom, Hospital and Foynes will close by 2013.  Services for the customers associated with the branch closures in 2012 will be transferred to Newcastle West, Listowel, Tipperary and O’Connell Street, respectively, while Adare, Kilmallock and Newcastlewest will service customers from Croom, Hospital and Foynes, respectively.

In Tipperary, the Newport branch will close with customer accounts moving to O’Connell Street, Limerick.
Holidaymakers and locals in the seaside town of Kilkee will see services from the branch move to Kilrush, as the West Clare town branch closes at the end of this year.
As part of the restructuring announcement that came off the back of the group publishing its half year figures, AIB will launch four mobile banks that will service rural locations across Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Kerry and Cork.
Denis O’Callaghan, head of AIB branch banking, said “we have seen a very significant change in the way our customers wish to do their banking and as a result, many of our branches have seen a large decline in customer visits”.
The bank noted that branch closures will not result in compulsory job losses and that staff will be offered employment in other locations.
Together with the announcement and the release of the half-year figures that saw an operating loss of €1.1billion for AIB, the bank said that they will increase their variable mortgage interest rate by half a per cent from 3% to 3.5% in September.