While the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) is likely to create some jobs, ironically it might also be responsible for spurring the first widespread redundancies within Ireland’s domestic banks.

The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA), the bankers’ union, has said it wants to get involved in the negotiations around the government’s plans to make a “bad bank” to house the estimated €80bn of development and investment property loans. It fears up to 50% of credit management jobs could go.

This is because there are concerns the functions could be centralised under Nama, as it chases up the mountain of bad debt, which could lead to a reduction of work for the banks’ individual credit management teams.

“The IBOA is concerned at the potential impact that this development will have,” said Larry Broderick, general secretary of the IBOA.

Credit management is a large employer within Ireland’s banks. The two biggest players – Bank of Ireland and AIB – each have around 1,000 staff in this department, while the other institutions covered by the state guarantee have a combined 2,000 in credit management.

The IBOA says it’s seeking clarification over “the particular implications it could have for staff working in credit management in all of the banks at this point”.

In spite of all the problems that have affected Irish banks over the last 12 months, there haven’t been any wide-spread redundancies.

They have, however, been cutting back on temporary staff. National Irish Bank said it was reducing its contractor workforce after its annual report, and other banks are thought to be doing the same. Employees who leave are often not being replaced, with their job instead being spread over the remaining team.