AT LEAST 200 of the Ulster Bank jobs are to be lost in the North.

The bank, which posted healthy profits locally of £378 million (€400 million) last year, has begun a voluntary severance programme.

The condition of the troubled and part-nationalised parent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is being cited as the cause of the cost-cutting measures.

The downturn in the housing sector is also thought to have contributed.

The northern property market slumped by some 34 per cent in 2008.

The bank could not say where the job cuts would fall, citing the voluntary nature of the severance scheme.

Group chief executive Cormac McCarthy said: “With 3,000-plus people employed in Northern Ireland and a voluntary scheme we have to wait to see how many people apply and from what part of the business. We will work through the process with our union representatives and staff representatives over the coming days and weeks to see what is the best way forward.”

The job cuts follow a disastrous month for the Northern labour market with 5,000 jobs lost and the local unemployment total jumping 13,000 to some 35,500 in the past year alone

Irish Bank Officials’ Association spokesman Steve Tweed expressed shock at the scale of the losses and said his union would question the need for so many jobs to go.

He said the IBOA would be negotiating with the bank to minimise the numbers made redundant and to attain the best possible severance package for those losing their jobs.

The union said workers were being made to pay for the “incompetence and greed of senior management” and warned against any compulsory redundancies.