Citizens parent to reorganize Irish units, hire 150

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the
U.K.’s second-largest bank by assets and parent company of Providence-based Citizens Bank, plans to reorganize its
Irish division to help integrate it better with the rest of the
Edinburgh-based lender’s operations.

Royal Bank, whose Belfast-based Ulster Bank operates in both
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, will integrate
Ulster’s back office, information technology and finance
activities with the rest of the group, according to an e-mailed
statement. It also plans to open a mortgage processing facility
in Dublin and create 150 operations jobs in Belfast, Northern
Ireland.

“The changes announced will provide significantly
greater capability to support our future growth plans and will
enable us to move forward at a faster pace,” Ulster Bank Chief
Executive Cormac McCarthy said in the statement.

Royal Bank in January bought Dublin-based mortgage lender
First Active Plc for 887 million euros ($1.08 billion) to expand
in Ireland. Combined, Ulster and First Active have about 1.3
million personal and business customers in the Republic of
Ireland and Northern Ireland and 263 branches.

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The measures announced yesterday involve a “substantial”
investment by Royal Bank, the statement said. Ita Gibney, a
spokeswoman for the bank in Ireland, declined to quantify the
investment.

The overall effect on employee numbers will be “neutral”
as reductions in some areas are offset by the new jobs in
Belfast, the bank said. The cuts won’t be made through compulsory
redundancies, Royal Bank said. Employees who deal directly with
customers won’t not be affected, it said.

Bloomberg News

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