{"id":155237,"date":"2025-10-31T12:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155237\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T12:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:21:12","slug":"ptsb-sale-prompts-fears-new-owner-will-cut-branches-and-jobs-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155237\/","title":{"rendered":"PTSB sale prompts fears new owner will cut branches and jobs \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

PTSB<\/a>\u2019s move to put itself up for sale has stoked concerns a new owner will cut branches and jobs in the Republic\u2019s least cost-efficient bank. <\/p>\n

The 57 per cent State-owned bank surprised the stock market on Thursday morning by announcing it had put itself up for sale \u2013 sending its market value up 23.4 per cent in Dublin<\/a> to \u20ac1.58 billion. <\/p>\n

A deal would mark the return of all three domestic banks that survived the 2008 financial crisis to private ownership \u2013 and complete the recovery of the \u20ac29.4 billion in total that was injected into them. <\/p>\n

PTSB, by far the smallest of the three, has been dogged by low profit returns since the crash. This is largely due to its small scale \u2013 even after increasing its balance sheet by about 50 per cent between 2022 and 2023 after acquiring \u20ac6.8 billion of Ulster Bank<\/a> loans. <\/p>\n

\u201cA key attraction for any prospective buyer \u2013 be it another bank or private equity \u2013 is likely to be material further cost extraction,\u201d said John Cronin, founder of SeaPoint Insights, an independent Irish research and analysis firm specialising in banking and financial services. \u201cHeadcount reduction and branch footprint shrinkage are two key things that will likely be used by any new owner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin Toms, an analyst with RBC Capital in London, said a private equity firm \u201cis probably the most likely acquirer who might see an opportunity from tackling the bank\u2019s large cost base\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PTSBPTSB chief executive Eamonn Crowley. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Financial Services Union<\/a> (FSU) called for clarity on job security and the future of the branch network \u2013 and for the Minister for Finance to rule out selling to a private equity firm. \u201cWe are liaising with bank management and requesting an urgent meeting with the Minister for Finance to ensure protections for staff, and business are in place before any sale is agreed,\u201d he said in response to questions from The Irish Times. <\/p>\n

PTSB chief executive Eamonn Crowley refused on a call with reporters to rule out any type of buyer. \u201cIt\u2019s an open process,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

While PTSB is on track to cut 300 jobs this year \u2013 equivalent to almost 9 per cent of its 3,360-strong workforce at the end of 2024 \u2013 it will continue to have the highest cost base, relative to total income, among Irish banks. It has 98 branches, including 25 bought from Ulster Bank. <\/p>\n

The bank\u2019s forecast \u20ac525 million running costs for this year will still equate to more than 75 per cent of total income \u2013 compared to figures below 50 per cent at AIB and Bank of Ireland. PTSB has set itself an objective of reducing its cost-income ratio to 62 per cent in 2027, as the other two banks continue to see theirs remaining below 50 per cent. This is the benchmark that most European retail banks aim for. <\/p>\n

PTSB received a \u20ac4 billion State bailout in 2011 and has so far repaid \u20ac2.8 billion. The total includes cash received from the sale of its former sister company Irish Life, share sales, redemption of bailout bonds, guarantee fees and interest payments.<\/p>\n

The State\u2019s remaining stake was worth \u20ac900 million at the end of trading on Thursday \u2013 leaving taxpayers about \u20ac300 million under water, on paper, on their original investment. <\/p>\n

However, the State is on track to more than break even on the three remaining banks as a whole, on a cash-in, cash-out basis.<\/p>\n

It recovered \u20ac2 billion more than the \u20ac4.8 billion pumped into Bank of Ireland by the time it sold its remaining shares in that bank in late 2022. <\/p>\n

However, the sale of a final stake in AIB in June left the Government on track to fall about \u20ac700 million short of recovering the bank\u2019s full \u20ac20.8 billion rescue bill. That is even after accounting for stock warrants it continues to hold in AIB, which the bank is soon expected to buy back for about \u20ac300 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State\u2019s investment in PTSB was made during the financial crisis to safeguard the stability of the banking system and protect depositors,\u201d said Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe. \u201cA sale of the State\u2019s investment would be consistent with the objective of recovering taxpayer funds that were used to rescue the Irish banks and deploying these to more productive purposes.\u201d <\/p>\n

Austrian bank Bawag, which owns Irish mortgage lender Moco, and Spain\u2019s Bankinter, which owns Avant Money, may be among banking groups to at least run the rule over PTSB, industry sources say. Bankinter played down the prospect of taking on PTSB on a call with analysts last week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PTSB\u2019s move to put itself up for sale has stoked concerns a new owner will cut branches and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[624,90684,625,76955,90683,79,18,78389,19,17,46,37657],"class_list":{"0":"post-155237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aib","9":"tag-bank-closures","10":"tag-bank-of-ireland","11":"tag-bankinter","12":"tag-bawag","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-financial-services-union","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-paschal-donohoe","19":"tag-ptsb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115468755628118669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}