Published Friday, 07 August 2009
Chief executive Cormac McCarthy said he was confident the job cuts - to be made on both sides of the border but with the bulk in the Irish Republic - would be achieved on a voluntary basis.
In January the bank, which has 132 branches in the Republic and 92 in Northern Ireland, sought 750 redundancies and was very heavily oversubscribed, he said.
The bank's £8m loss came after a jump in loan losses to £157m, £107m relating to business loans.
Profit wiped out by those impairment charges fell to £149m from £190m a year ago.
Impaired loans as a percentage of total loans rose from 0.1% a year ago to 0.8% and the bank said they were expected to rise in the second half of the year.
In the first half of the year the Ulster said its total lending to customers was flat, with mortgage lending up 2%, but deposits down 17% to £18.9bn.
'Complicated'
Mr McCarthy described the bank's figures as "busy and complicated" and said they had been"severely affected by economic conditions across the island of Ireland".
He added: "I think it is fair to say in common with what we have seen generally in the banking sector in Ireland as a whole the economic fundamentals are having an impact."
"Obviously there has been a big exposure in banking to property and that has suffered greatly and that is reflected in our numbers."
"Economic activity is also down so there is pressure on income and margins as well, so it is across the board and reflected in the economics we are seeing in play in the island."
Ulster Bank is part of the partially nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland which as a group edged back into the black today with a £15m profit for the first half of 2009.
The profit at the bank, which is 70% owned by the taxpayer after a £20bn bailout, came despite bad debts and writedowns soaring to £7.5bn.
Chief executive Stephen Hester, who has been charged with the turnaround of the troubled bank, said it had been a "momentous" six months for the business.
He added: "There will be no miracle cures. Our task is no less than one of the largest bank restructurings ever done, in the face of strong economic headwinds."
"Overall results may not substantially improve until 2011 and full recovery will take time."
'Disappointing'
The Irish Bank Officials' Association said it was "profoundly disappointing" there were to be 250 more redundancies given the earlier rationalisation programme involving 750 job losses had yet to be completed.
The finance union general secretary, Larry Broderick said senior management had indicated to them that the bank's Corporate Markets and Central Services divisions would be the focus of the new round of job cuts.
The redundancies would be the subject of full negotiation and agreement, he said.
"The bank has given us an undertaking this morning that all job losses will be implemented on a voluntary basis and on the same terms as the programme for 750 redundancies which is already under way," said Mr Broderick.
The union had also received a commitment from Ulster Banks' Edinburgh-based parent, RBS, that the Irish subsidiary remained part of the core business of the RBS group.
"IBOA is seeking an early meeting with the RBS chief executive, Stephen Hester, in order to copper-fasten this commitment."
"We intend to seek similar reassurances from other banks operating here but headquartered outside Ireland," he added.