Permanent TSB has completed the acquisition of €6.2bn in performing non-tracker residential mortgages from Ulster Bank.
The majority of the portfolio, valued at €5.2bn, was migrated to PTSB on Monday, and the remaining €1bn will be transferred to the bank by the end of next year.
A total of 56,000 residential mortgages attached to 36,000 accounts are being migrated to PTSB, and the transaction has increased the size of the lender's mortgage book by approximately 40%.
"This is a transformational day for Permanent TSB as we work towards our ambition of being Ireland's best personal and small business bank," said Eamonn Crowley, CEO of PTSB.
"We extend a warm welcome to the 56,000 mortgage customers and our new colleagues who are joining us today, and we want to assure them that we will give them a best-in-class mortgage offering and colleague experience, underpinned by a high-quality service and great people."
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PTSB said it would honour all the existing terms and conditions of the loans and that it is writing to customers to provide them with comprehensive information about the transfer.
PTSB acquired the mortgages migrated for a cash consideration plus the issue of close to 91m ordinary shares priced at 50 cent each to Ulster Bank parent NatWest.
NatWest will hold a 16.7% holding in the enlarged Permanent TSB Group Holdings plc upon completion of the deal.
The the state-owned bank will also take on 113 Ulster Bank employees who were assigned to the residential portfolio and assign them to either PTSB or its service partner Pepper Finance Corporation.
A further 230 Ulster Bank employees working in branches, the SME and asset finance businesses being acquired by the bank will also be entitled to transfer to PTSB.
One Ulster Bank insider commented that employees are being forced to transfer under TUPE transfer of undertaking rules.
“There are numerous staff in these branches who wish to avail of redundancy but it’s not an option. You go to PTSB or you resign with nothing,” she said.
“The bank is also not facilitating or helping staff with moves within the bank prior to the transfer of staff. They have delayed this so long that now they are only providing a week long window for requests of transfers to be put in reviewed and authorised.
“Branch staff have been under a large about of stress since the announcement in February 2021, with little and sometimes no information on their future available.”
Customers of the 25 Ulster Bank branches that will reopen under PTSB in January and February next have been urged to open an account with PTSB.
Some 100,000 new current accounts have been opened with the lender this year, an increase of 250% year-on-year, and a further 35,000 deposit accounts have been opened with the bank (+80%).
"Today is a step-change for the Bank because we are growing our mortgage book by approximately 40%. Together with our imminent acquisitions of Ulster Bank's SME and asset finance businesses and 25 of its branches, we are generating greater scale and becoming a much stronger competitive force in Irish retail banking," Crowley added.
