![\"Bank](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4867557_8_articleinlinemobile_protest_20wideframe_20BOI.jpeg\" "\\"Bank")
Bank of Ireland retirees protesting outside the bank’s South Mall branch in Cork City amid calls to revisit crisis-era pension cutbacks <\/p>\nFormer Bank of Ireland employees from across the country gathered in Cork City on Thursday to protest what they called an \u201cunconscionable unwillingness\u201d by senior management to revisit pension reductions implemented during the financial crisis.<\/p>\n
Pensioners from across four provinces congregated on Cork\u2019s South Mall outside the lender\u2019s main city branch, marking the second major protest by former employees in recent weeks following their demonstration outside the bank’s Dublin headquarters in October.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Paul Harty, a former Bank of Ireland employee who worked for the company for 38 years, said the purpose of the demonstration was to push senior management to address the issue of pensions, which \u201ccontinue to be ignored.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, substantial pension reductions were introduced by the company, first in 2010, and again in 2013, to reduce the bank\u2019s deficit.<\/p>\n
The changes saw benefits for pension scheme members reduced, mainly resulting from a change in how future pay increases would qualify for the pension. Only until 2006 were benefits linked to a worker\u2019s final salary.<\/p>\n
For more than a decade, pension increases have been essentially capped at 3%, due to a 1% clawback on increases of 4%, with newly retired Bank of Ireland staff receiving no increase for the first three years.<\/p>\n
Bank of Ireland retirees protesting outside the bank’s South Mall branch in Cork City amid calls to revisit crisis-era pension cutbacks <\/p>\n
When the changes were introduced, Bank of Ireland pledged to review the cutbacks once circumstances improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe promises and commitments made at those meetings back in 2010 and 2013 have not been honoured,\u201d said Mr Harty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bank has returned to very strong profits, and they are quite happily paying themselves huge amounts of money.”<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, pensions have received virtually no increases in seven years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following updates to its share awards scheme, the chief executive of Bank of Ireland, Myles O\u2019Grady, is in line to receive a total package of around \u20ac2m in 2026.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the lender recorded profits of almost \u20ac2bn, underpinned by a surge in net interest income, which rose to \u20ac3.6bn as a result of interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank (ECB).<\/p>\n
In the first six months of 2025, Bank of Ireland recorded a pre-tax profit of \u20ac721m and raised its full-year guidance for net interest income to \u20ac3.5bn.<\/p>\n
The bank\u2019s defined benefit pensions recorded a \u20ac917m surplus in the first six months of 2025, according to the lender\u2019s interim results for this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of anger at this,\u201d said Mr Harty, who also spent five years on the executive of the Financial Services Union (FSU), adding that Bank of Ireland was \u201crefusing to engage with pensioners.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes to our pensions were agreed upon based on a commitment given by the bank in 2010 and 2013 to review the situation when circumstances improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want these restrictions unwound. We do not feel like we are receiving our fair share. Back in 2013, the CEO of Bank of Ireland was on about \u20ac840,000. Fast forward to today, Myles O\u2019Grady is on course to earn \u20ac2m. The CEO is up more than 100% what we are.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Yet, when we ask for the review that we were promised by Bank of Ireland, they tell us that it\u2019s not the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also attending Thursday\u2019s protest was former Bank of Ireland employee Therese Coughlan, who worked at the company for 35 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was full-time. Then, I couldn\u2019t get time off work for personal reasons, so I had to resign. I rejoined again in the 90s and was in a job share. My pension and my salary are pro-rata.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy pension is \u20ac520 a month,\u201d Ms Coughlan added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimply put, the banks have gotten greedy again. What Myles O\u2019Grady needs to hear now is, enough is enough. We are not going away, and Bank of Ireland needs to get used to it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Coughlan said almost 800 retirees have joined in on efforts to reopen talks between pensioners and Bank of Ireland.<\/p>\n
![\"Bank](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4867560_8_articleinlinemobile_BOI_20protest.jpeg\" "\\"Bank")
Bank of Ireland retirees protesting outside the bank’s South Mall branch in Cork City amid calls to revisit crisis-era pension cutbacks <\/p>\n
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Ciar\u00e1n Mahon, chair of the retired members committee of the FSU, who worked for the bank for 43 years, said: \u201cThe most disappointing part of this is the bank\u2019s dishonesty. They can spend \u20ac40m on the refurbishment of its College Green bank and launch extensive share buybacks, but they can\u2019t review our pension plan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement to the Irish Examiner, a spokesperson for Bank of Ireland said: \u201cSince 2010, over \u20ac1bn in additional funding has been paid to the Bank Staff Pension Fund (BSPF) by the bank. These changes improved the financial position of the BSPF, reducing volatility and substantially de-risking the fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BSPF is a competitive scheme, one of a small number of direct pension schemes which has managed to remain open and continues to provide valuable benefits. While many other defined benefit pension schemes don\u2019t pay any increase in benefits, the BSPF provided a 3% discretionary increase in April 2024, 3% in April 2023, and 2.7% in April 2022.<\/p>\n
The lender added that its Pensions Steering Committee conducted a review of the scheme benefits in 2023, and assessed the position again in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt concluded that to change the benefit structure now risks the stability of the fund for both current and future generations of pensioners. The Board also commissioned an independent report on the matter in 2025 and reached the same conclusion in terms of stability and equity for all members of the scheme,\u201d Bank of Ireland added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bank has engaged fully with a range of pensioners on these issues in a number of different ways, including meetings with senior management, and will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Bank of Ireland employees from across the country gathered in Cork City on Thursday to protest what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,8531,174,175],"class_list":["post-150822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-munster-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}