Ulster Bank has announced a restructuring programme aimed at integrating the bank, and the recently acquired First Active, more fully with its parent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBOS).

The programme will be implemented over a three-year period and its overall impact will be "jobs-neutral", the bank said.

While some jobs will be lost in information technology, finance and back-office functions, this will be done without compulsory redundancy, through staff turnover, redeployment and voluntary redundancy where appropriate, the bank said.

The restructuring will lead to the creation of 150 new back-office jobs for the RBOS group in Belfast, the bank said, while customer-facing staff would not be affected. It gave no further details on jobs.

However, it is understood that around 150 information technology jobs will be transferred to Scotland, leaving just a small technology support function in Ireland. Up to 50 jobs in the bank's finance function also face the axe.

As part of the restructuring, Ulster Bank also plans to set up a new mortgage processing centre at the First Active offices in Sandyford in Dublin. This will create a euro mortgage capability for the Royal Bank of Scotland group and will be staffed through redeployment from within the group.

Ulster Bank chief executive Mr Cormac McCarthy said the bank was positioning itself to offer Irish banking customers "a real alternative and an enhanced range of products and services".

"A key part of our strategy is to leverage the overall strength of the Royal Bank of Scotland group," he said. He declined to comment on the cost of the restructuring or the investment it would entail, other than to say it was "not insignificant". The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA), which represents 3,500 workers at the bank, said it was "surprised, shocked and disappointed at the announcement".

A union spokesman said the IBOA was "concerned" at the lack of detail provided by the company. But he said the union had secured a commitment that there would be no compulsory redundancies or reductions in staff salaries and that there would be full negotiations and agreement with the IBOA on the implementation of the package. Royal Bank of Scotland first entered the Irish market four years ago when it acquired Ulster Bank as part of its takeover of National Westminster Bank.