Twelve of the 25 Ulster Bank branches due to transfer to Permanent TSB as part of the sale of performing non-tracker mortgages worth €6.2bn will close later today as the NatWest-owned lender continues its withdrawal from the Irish market.

Ulster Bank branches in Ardee, Ballyjamesduff, Blackrock, Blanchardstown Village, Celbridge, Enniscorthy, Kilcock, Lucan, Ranelagh, Rochestown Avenue, Swords Pavilions, and Trim will shutter at close of business on Friday.

A further 13 branches Athenry, Ballybofey, Ballyconnell, Belmullet, Donegal, Eyre Square, Killybeds, Shannon, Thurles, Tuam, Westport, and Wilton will shut down next Friday (13 January).

All 25 branches will remain as PTSB outlets in the coming weeks, and all staff working at those locations have been given the right to move their employment to PTSB as part of the transfer agreement.

The other 63 Ulster Bank locations around the country will remain open with final closure dates for the branches still to be announced.

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Some €5.2bn in performing mortgages were transferred from Ulster Bank to PTSB in November, with the remaining €1bn to be transferred by the end of 2023.

PTSB has said it hopes to fully complete the migration of assets purchased from Ulster Bank by the end June. A total of 56,000 mortgages attached to 36,000 accounts are being migrated to PTSB, and up to 450 Ulster Bank staff could move over too.

Ulster Bank started freezing the accounts of customers whose six-month notice period had lapsed in early November. The bank then paused accounts freezing on 9 December to ensure no accounts were made unavailable over Christmas.

The company will resume account freezing today (6 January) now that the Christmas period has ended.

Ulster Bank is yet to announce when it will cease retail banking operations in Ireland. The date will be dependent on the speed with which customer accounts are closed and migrated to other lenders.

Of the more than 1.2m accounts that were open with Ulster Bank and KBC Bank Ireland, which is also winding down, at the start of last year, less than half have been closed, according to the Central Bank.

At the end of November, some 675,000 Ulster Bank and KBC accounts remained open, down 12% or 94,000 from October.

Of the 393,000 current accounts that remain open, 281,000 were deemed by the banks to be active accounts, and 192,000 were deemed by the banks as customer’s ‘primary’ account.

The number of current accounts defined as ‘primary’ declined by 50% between July and the end of November. Some 82,000 accounts were opened with the remaining retail banks that month, bringing the total for the year to 882,000.

(Pic: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie)