We’ve already had the AIB close down in Moville and it’s only presence now is a van which comes along for a few hours every Wednesday afternoon. Now there ia a major risk that the Ulster Bank could close down too.
Ulster Bank is part of the RBS group and is the part of the group that is trading the most poorly. It is sucking in money that RBS can least afford.
Now a review is in progress about what to do about Ulster Bank. There is certain to be heavy staff losses out of the 4,800 employed by Ulster Bank. It’s almost certain that there will be branch closures.
Moville
As we saw with AIB, a small town like Moville is likely to be at the forefront of any branch closures. That would leave us with just the Bank of Ireland, which does not operate a full service every day of the week.
According to the Sunday Times “Ulster Bank’s future may be as a bank with fewer branches, especially outside urban areas, more online banking and concentration on higher margin niches”.
One of the options being looked at is the complete closure of Ulster Bank to stop all the losses it is making.
If they are closing branches let’s hope that the Moville branch is not one of those to close. I wouldn’t bank on it though. They may end up trading out the back of a van for a few days a week just like AIB.