Banks are coming under pressure to introduce counselling and training for staff who face abuse from an irate public.

While AIB said it implemented new measures because of the "current economic climate", such as training for staff who deal with the public, employees said they were still struggling with the extent of public anger.

"Some customers go nuts. They just lose the plot. It is people whose businesses are going under and who simply blame the banks and point the finger at branch staff. We have people telling us their marriages are being ruined because of us, as if we are personally to blame. We have customers denying they ever signed things which they did," said one Bank of Ireland employee in Dublin.

"There is support available but a lot of staff don't have the right kind of training to be dealing with such pressurised situations. The attacks can get quite personal. I myself have never been offered any kind of support, though I think that I am coping okay. Other people obviously are not as there are a massive amount of sick days being taken" he added.

A spokesman for Bank of Ireland said a 24-hour counselling service is in place for employees.

One AIB staff member who works in customer services said he had to take stress leave because of the abuse and also called for dedicated and compulsory training for new staff.

"The callers to the bank don't understand they are talking to a normal person on a basic salary, not some executive. I have been near tears over some of the abuse, and have taken stress leave a few times.

"I am dealing more and more with customers who are really stuck with their loan repayments and are looking for assistance from lenders. They are being denied this assistance, and the first person in their firing line is me. There needs to be some kind of training for everyone, not just certain employees, because we are all feeling it."

A spokesman for the bank workers' union, the IBOA, said frontline bank officials were being threatened with violence.

An RTÉ survey last week found that three out of four bank officials have been abused by the public.