Marketing

Ulster Bank stops offering products for new business customers


Ulster Bank said that it will no longer be taking on new business customers from Friday, outside of its Lombard Asset Finance business, as the lender continues to plan its withdrawal from the Republic.

If business customers have already applied for a product, or are already in the process of becoming a new customer, that will continue, it said.

The lender said that it will generally only continue to accept applications for new and existing personal banking customers until the close of business on October 29th, with the main exception being mortgages, which will remain available to existing customers only after that date.

Overdraft applications

Other exceptions include overdrafts for existing customers and applications that were in progress prior to the end of October. The bank in a statement that it is writing to existing customers giving them 60 days’ notice of this change and has also posted questions and answers on its website.

Separately, Ulster Bank posted an operating loss of €7 million in the first half of the year, down from a loss of €276 million a year earlier, its UK parent NatWest said on Friday.

Last year’s figure had been driven by €278 million of loan impairment charges as lenders raced to set aside money to cover an expected surge in bad loans as a result of Covid-19. The bank managed to free up €13 million of these provisions in the first half of this year.

Ulster Bank’s loan book contracted to €19.4 billion by the end of June from €20 billion in December, while its deposits dipped to €21.6 billion from €21.8 billion.

NatWest confirmed in February that it was winding down Ulster Bank on a phased basis. It has subsequently reached agreement to sell €4.2 billion of corporate and large business loans to AIB and has broadly agreed to sell €7.6 billion of performing mortgages and micro-business loans to Permanent TSB.

Sources said last week that AIB is also in talks to acquire Ulster Bank’s €6.5 billion-plus low-profit tracker mortgage book.



READ SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.