None of the three banks have yet moved their variable or new fixed-rate mortgage prices in response to the European moves. AIB will make a decision within weeks, Mr Hunt said. Bank of Ireland said it keeps its rates under constant review. Permanent TSB chief executive Eamonn Crowley said his bank “hasn’t moved” on the basis of the ECB hiking its rates by 1.25 percentage points.
Mr Hunt said that there had been “no shortage of analysis” and that data had backed up the original plan, amid an ongoing decline in branch transactions which was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of customer transactions in AIB branches has fallen by 35 per cent over the past three years, while those in cash and cheque lodgement facilities have almost halved, he said.
He insisted that the proposal to withdraw cash services, including ATMs, from the 70 branches, was to make the outlets more viable and maintain its existing network, which he was a “distinguishing feature” of the group.
Noonans brother