2,100 jobs to go at Bank of Ireland

ALLIANCE & Leicester has emerged as a suitor for Bristol & West's banking branch network as its Irish bank owner embarks on a cost-saving programme to slash 2,100 jobs in Britain and Ireland.

Bank of Ireland chief executive Brian Goggin said the bank had received 'expressions of interest in respect of this [B&W] network from a number of interested parties.' Bank sources say that these include High Street lender A&L.

Any sale of the branch network could affect about 1,000 staff across 97 offices. Goggin said the strategy was to focus in Britain on business banking, mortgages and consumer banking via its joint venture with the Post Office.

In a separate move, Goggin unveiled plans to cut Bank of Ireland's 17,000 workforce by 12% to save about €120m (£83.2m) by 2009. About €40m will be spent on updating the bank's IT systems.

Finance director John O'Donovan said about 400 of the job cuts would fall in the UK and the remaining 1,700 would affect Irish operations. The bank is exploring 'outsourcing' opportunities, O'Donovan added.

These are likely to involve IT and back office staff. He said he wanted to consolidate 22 call centres in Ireland and Britain into 'four or five contact centres'.

In an end-of-year trading update, Bank of Ireland said pre-tax profits for the year to 31 March are expected to rise 5% to €1.37bn, or 10% excluding its investment in the Post Office venture.