Bank of Ireland has announced plans to cut 1,400 jobs in the coming months.

In a statement, the bank said it launched a voluntary redundancy programme throughout the group this morning.

It said it expects to cut its employee numbers from 10,400 to 9,000 in the medium term.

It comes after the bank announced a loss before tax of €669m for the first six months of the year.

In a statement, CEO Francesca McDonagh said COVID-19 has had a material impact on the Group’s financial performance and outlook.

“Our priority in the pandemic has been to proactively support our customers, colleagues and communities, and to stay focussed on delivering our strategy,” she said.

“We put in place a wide range of supports for customers – including more than 100,000 payment breaks in Ireland and the UK and we transformed how we operate.

“Notwithstanding the challenges, we’ve increased our market share in Irish mortgages, reduced costs, and continued to improve our products and services especially through digital.”

She said the group’s capital remains “strong and resilient” with its outlook now “cautiously more optimistic” than it was at the end of March.