{"id":491339,"date":"2026-05-18T22:32:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/491339\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T22:32:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:32:28","slug":"pension-protest-to-be-held-at-bank-of-ireland-agm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/491339\/","title":{"rendered":"Pension Protest to be held at Bank of Ireland AGM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former staff of Bank of Ireland will protest at the bank\u2019s 2026 AGM next week because of what they say is unfair treatment of former employees on pension while senior management receive \u201chuge\u201d salaries and bonuses. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This protest is being organised by the Justice for the BSPF (Bank of Ireland Staff Pension Fund) group. More than 5,000 former staff still have retirement benefits restricted under curbs introduced by Bank of Ireland during the recession \u2013 and they point to the bank\u2019s profits of billions of euro over recent year as evidence of unfair treatment.<\/p>\n

Members of the Bank of Ireland Staff Pension Fund say they had to accept serious restrictions in 2010 and 2013 during the financial crisis but that the bank is now exceptionally profitable.<\/p>\n

These included a cap of 4% on future increases with the first one percent clawed back. This meant that the maximum\u00a0 future increase was set at 3%. Another restriction was that there would be no increases for a period of three years post retirement .<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all led to believe that these harsh measures would be temporary. However, Bank of Ireland steadfastly refuses to remove them,\u201d said spokesman Paul Harty.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll this despite making combined profits in 2024 and 2025 of \u20ac3.6 Billion,\u201d he added, announcing a protest at the Bank of Ireland AGM at the Intercontinental Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin on Thursday, May 21st.<\/p>\n

He said that he believed it was \u201d absolutely disgusting that a so-called pillar bank, that we all trusted, is happy to condemn its pensioners to a future of rapidly decreasing income whilst rewarding senior management with huge salary increases, bonuses and shares.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo add insult to injury Bank of Ireland recently announced a special one off (fully taxable) payment to retirees whose income is below a certain threshold. This payment is to be made from Bank of Irelands Benevolent (Charity) fund. This soup kitchen approach is another effort to deflect from the real issue which is the full restoration of the BSPF pension,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPensioners were also excluded from recent cost of living increases awarded to current staff members. More evidence if it was needed of their attitude towards retired colleagues,\u201d Mr Harty said.<\/p>\n

He said that \u201cBank of Ireland\u2019s dismissive attitude towards its pensioners is not surprising when you look at their track record \u2013 how they have behaved towards their Tracker Mortgage holders, both customers and staff\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCap that off with the ongoing Motor Loan Finance scandal in the UK for which Bank of Ireland have made a reported provision of some \u20ac429 Million,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand side by side with An Post retirees who are also fighting for pension justice,\u201d the pensioner said. \u201cThis will be our sixth protest in the last twelve months. Previous protests were held in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Galway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect strong support from Bank of Ireland retirees, working colleagues and deferred pensioners at this protest to demand that this awful injustice is rectified.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Figures circulated by the bank to members of the scheme show it was running a 1 per cent \u2013 or \u20ac30 million \u2013 surplus as of March 2024, the Business Post reported last year<\/a>, with net assets of the scheme close to \u20ac5.4 billion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bank of Ireland were asked for comment on the protest but have not yet responded. The bank previously said<\/a> that lifting the restrictions on pensioners would add at least \u20ac500 million to the cost of funding its future obligations, and claimed that the pension scheme was \u201ccompetitive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bank of Ireland reported a full-year pre-tax profit of \u20ac1.4 billion for 2025. While this marked a decrease from the \u20ac1.9 billion reported in 2024, BOI delivered an adjusted return on tangible equity (RoTE) of 13.9% and announced a robust total shareholder payout of roughly \u20ac1.2 billion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former staff of Bank of Ireland will protest at the bank\u2019s 2026 AGM next week because of what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[214347,214348,625,79,18,19,17,234,235],"class_list":["post-491339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-agm","tag-bank-of-ireland-pension-staff-fund","tag-bank-of-ireland","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116597957949141390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491339","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=491339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}