{"id":515161,"date":"2026-06-23T23:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T23:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/515161\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T23:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T23:41:14","slug":"central-bank-seeks-job-cuts-after-staff-numbers-doubled-since-financial-crash-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/515161\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Bank seeks job cuts after staff numbers doubled since financial crash \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Central Bank<\/a> governor Gabriel Makhlouf<\/a> put staff on notice on Tuesday for likely job cuts later this year as the authority seeks to rein in rising running expenses after a more than doubling of its workforce to 2,225 since the financial crisis. <\/p>\n

Makhlouf, who was reappointed for a second seven-year term in March, told staff in an email that the bank needs to cut a projected 6 per cent annual increase in its costs base out to 2030 by half. <\/p>\n

He said that he aims to shave \u20ac75 million of otherwise anticipated spending. Some \u20ac49 million of this will come from non-pay efficiencies, including a reduction in contractors, improvements in its processes and greater use of automation. <\/p>\n

The remaining \u20ac26 million will follow a review of the shapes and sizes of its various divisions. This is expected to result in voluntary redundancies as the governor has committed to not bringing in pay cuts. He has also promised not to introduce compulsory redundancies. Detailed decisions are expected in the autumn. <\/p>\n

It may result in more than 150 staff exits, based on the targeted pay savings and current running costs trajectory out to 2030. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe at the Central Bank of Ireland are committed to maintaining a sustainable cost base while continuing to deliver our mandate effectively. As a financially independent organisation, we recognise that a significant proportion of our operating costs are levied on the financial services industry and ultimately on to the wider economy,\u201d Makhlouf said a statement issued to The Irish Times in response to questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis underscores the importance of managing expenditure responsibly. We will plan to meet our expenditure targets fairly and clearly, and will continue to engage with colleagues, acknowledging that these decisions affect everyone in the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff numbers at the Central Bank have doubled since 2008, including employees of the formerly separate financial regulatory authority that was folded into the bank in 2010, driven as it devoted more resources to supervising a growing number of authorised firms.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Central Bank seeks public\u2019s views as it aims to update how it regulates financial systemOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Employees grew by 46 per cent in the past decade alone, leaving the institution with a basic pay bill of \u20ac208.5 million last year. Adding in pension contributions and employer PRSI (pay-related social insurance), staff expenses totalled \u20ac260.9 million. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the bank has racked up losses \u2013 including shortfalls of \u20ac104.6 million last year and \u20ac795.4 million in 2024 \u2013 after an era of super profits generated by the bank in the wake of the financial crisis came to an end in 2022.<\/p>\n

The Central Bank generated more than \u20ac23.5 billion of profits in the 15 years to 2022, driven by the response of central bankers in Dublin and Frankfurt to the near-collapses of the domestic banking system and the euro and a decade of anaemic inflation across the euro zone.<\/p>\n

More than \u20ac18.5 billion was transferred to the government over the period, cushioning the blow after taxpayers were forced to commit \u20ac64 billion to rescue the banking system, and successive governments sought to narrow budget deficits.<\/p>\n

The profits were initially driven by interest on emergency loans to banks during the financial crisis. They have also been fuelled by multibillion-euro gains on the sale of Government bonds used in 2013 to refinance the bailout of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, interest on bonds acquired under European Central Bank quantitative easing programmes, as well as money made from charging commercial banks negative rates for excess deposits stored with the Central Bank.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on the Central Bank report: Ireland\u2019s window of opportunityOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf put staff on notice on Tuesday for likely job cuts later this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,20927,28228,61,60],"class_list":["post-515161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-central-bank-of-ireland","tag-gabriel-makhlouf","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515161","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=515161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}