Bank of Ireland to cut 750 jobs after EU approval

Bank of Ireland said on Friday
that it would cut 5 percent of its staff and maintain a pay
freeze as part of the conditions for European Union approval of
its restructuring plan earlier this week.
Ireland's biggest bank by market value received 3.5 billion
euros ($4.45 billion) of capital and other state aid last year
due to the credit crisis and the bursting of the Irish property
bubble.
Bank of Ireland, which is 36 percent owned by the state,
pledged to sell assets and wind down some portfolios after
receiving the approval and said the 750 job cuts, to be made on
a voluntary basis, would be taken over the next two years.
The bank employs around 14,500 people, and a spokeswoman
said it had already reduced staff numbers by 2,200 between March
2008 and December 2009.
Bank of Ireland last month completed its recapitalisation to
plug a hole in its balance sheet after the discounted sale of
risky property loans to Ireland's "bad bank".
The government, facing some of the euro zone's biggest
fiscal and banking problems, wants Bank of Ireland to lead the
way for its other troubled banks to rebuild their own capital
levels.