The Future of Financial Services
Issued on August 31, 2009 at 12:28 PM
The Irish Government's proposal to create a "bad bank" in the form of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) along with the UK Government's insurance protection scheme for British- based banks is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the future of the Irish banking industry, for your jobs and for your terms and conditions of employment.
The Irish Government has circulated draft legislation on NAMA - which will take over both performing and non-performing loans from the institutions covered by the Irish State guarantee - with a view to having a full Parliamentary debate in mid-September.
As NAMA moves from theory to reality, it presents a unique opportunity for IBOA members to make strong representations to the Irish Parliament, to members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and to the UK Parliament - as well as to the various regulatory authorities with a view to ensuring that, after NAMA comes into operation, the restructuring of the banking sector which follows does not result in substantial job losses or lead to a major assault on your terms and conditions of employment.
While IBOA has engaged in high level lobbying of the various key figures in the current debate, it is important that members also play their part in persuading public representatives that the con-siderable taxpayer investment in the creation of NAMA should not also be the prelude to a major assault on staff in the financial services sector at a time of rapidly rising unemployment.
IBOA recently organised a number of members' meetings in the Republic, Northern Ireland and Britain. Even though these meetings took place during the holiday season, they were extremely well received by the many members who attended.
The overwhelming feeling of these meetings was that the Union should not only continue to lobby public representatives at the highest level - but also provide an opportunity for members to play their part in this campaign by publicising staff concerns at local level.
Over the coming days, IBOA will be developing campaign materials for your use. These will include:
- a background commentary on the NAMA debate;
- sample letters to be sent to political representatives;
- letters to local media; and
- other flyers.
The campaign material will be made available through your local IBOA representative. You will also be able to access these items through the Union's websites, www.iboa.ie/ and www.iboa.org.uk/. If you subscribe to Twitter, you should also be able to follow our campaign and other news 'tweets' by logging on to iboaunion.
With some commentators now forecasting up to 10,000 job losses in Irish banking within the next few years, it is vital that all our members work together to influence the debate on the future direction of the industry.
Indeed I believe that, since the future of the industry is now at stake, any non-union colleagues should also be actively encouraged to take part in the campaign.
The next few weeks could have a crucial bearing on your future in the banking sector. I would urge you to make a special effort to support the campaign at this time.
Thank you for your continuing loyalty to your colleagues in the Union.
Together we can make a difference!
Larry Broderick
General Secretary
