It has appeared that another 250 people would be laid off by the Ulster Bank, after it made an £8m loss in the first six months of the year.

A pre-tax profit of £15m, during the same period last year, was posted by the group which owns Ulster Bank, RBS.

Though Ulster Bank made an operating profit of £149m, it was overshadowed by the £157m set aside to cover bad loans.

The bank, which is seeking the voluntary redundancies across the island, has 132 branches in the Republic and 92 in NI.

It was specified by Ulster Bank, via a statement, that its voluntary severance programme in January was oversubscribed.

The bank sought an additional 250 redundancies on account of this and the potential for further restructuring in certain areas.

The Republic is the area where most of the job losses are expected.

(Via TopNews United Kingdom. Contributed by Shivdeep Singh)