With Halifax announcing this week it was pulling out of Ireland – next week First Active will cease operations in Ireland. The First Active closure did not have as much effect – because they have merged some operations with Ulster Bank . Both Ulster and First Active banks are owned by Royal Bank of Scotland. The First Active closures were announced in Sept 09
The Firstactive.ie website is already out of action – and First Active will cease to exist as a bank in Ireland from Monday 15th February.
There are about 400 thousand customers who are all being transferred to Ulster Bank . Customers are being told that they will not be required to do anything after the transfer of the First Active IT systems into Ulster Bank.
Ulster Bank are also hoping that many of the 50 thousand ex Halifax banking customers will transfer to them. Ulster are going ot be opening some of it’s branches near Halifax branches till 7pm to help Halifax customers switch accounts. The Ulster Visa Debit card and fee free banking will be attractive to many Halifax customers.