Nine Bank of Ireland branches in Cork to close today

Nine Bank of Ireland branches in Cork will close their doors for the last time today.

The branches in Cork CIT, Glanmire, Bantry, Cobh, Dunmanway, Kanturk, Millstreet, Mitchelstown and Youghal are among 88 branches around the country to close.

The move was announced by Bank of Ireland earlier this year, with the bank saying the changes were in response to significant trends in how people are banking.

Speaking at the time of the announcement, Gavin Kelly, CEO, Retail Ireland, Bank of Ireland said: “Although the trend has been to close branches, we have kept our branch network largely unchanged over the past decade. But we’ve now reached a tipping point between online and offline banking. Technology is evolving, and customers are using branches less, year on year. Between 2017 and 2020 footfall at the branches which are closing dropped by c60% on average. And even before Covid-19, branch footfall had reduced by almost a quarter over two years. Our mobile app is our busiest channel, c.430k customers log in each day, and traffic is up one third since 2018.”

It said that a new partnership with An Post would see banking services locally. 

However, for those who would prefer to continue to visit a bank directly, they may have to travel some distance to do so, particularly in the county.

The decision to close the branches was met with some concern locally including from Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North West Aindrias Moynihan who described the announcement earlier this year as a “hard blow” for affected communities.

“The retail, business and hospitality community will be very seriously impacted as they will have to travel much further now to lodge money."

Deputy Moynihan did welcome that An Post, would facilitate customers impacted in these areas.

Bank of Ireland said it will continue to operate with 169 branches, including 18 in Cork.