COST-cutting plans at AIB may be delayed for several months because of the management upheaval at the bank.

AIB and the Irish Bank Officials Association had been engaged in preliminary talks in recent weeks about potential cuts.

But the imminent exit of managing director Colm Doherty may hold up the consultations with the union.

As the Sunday Tribune previously reported, the bank may slash its workforce in Ireland by about 1,500.

The reduction was expected to be announced when the bank finalised its restructuring plan with the European Commission and completed its capital raising before the end of the year. The cuts were predicated on AIB finding €7.4bn to offset horrific losses on loans going to Nama and not the revised €10.4bn announced by the Central Bank last week.

Doherty had said he intended to shrink the bank's cost-to-income ratio by 10%, but it is unclear if the new management team will stick to that target or seek to impose further cuts.

The process of finding a successor to Doherty has yet to officially begin as has the hunt for a new chairman to replace the outgoing Dan O'Connor. Finance minister Brian Lenihan said last week that he wanted "progressive management and board change" in the bank, taken as code that he will insist on an outsider for the top job.

The immediate issue for the bank will be to find a new chairman, with Michael Somers seen as a possible stop-gap.