AIB Headquarters
The country's biggest bank AIB has announced record profits of £826 million for 1998. Profits increased by £250 million pounds on the previous year. The bank said the buoyant economy here had generated significant growth. In a statement this morning, the bank said the buoyant economy in the Republic generated significant growth. Loans to its Irish customers rose by 21 per cent last year. Profits showed a rise of 42% over 1997 - a record amount for an Irish company.
The bank also saw growth across all its operations in the US, Britain and Poland. A breakdown of the figures shows £396 million was accounted for from its Irish and British operations, which rose by 39%. The bank's US operations contributed £200 million, a rise of 28%. Its businesses in Poland reported a rise of £48 million, up 30%. The bank's capital market's profit was 7% higher at £85 million. Other group activities earned the bank £97 million. The news confirms AIB's place as Ireland's most profitable company, and comes after widespread speculation on a foreign take over of the bank earlier this month.
At a press conference today, the bank also responded to today's revelations of the write-off of loans to former Taoiseach, Dr Garret Fitzgerald. A spokesperson said that while Dr Fitzgerald had spoken to the Examiner newspaper and gone on Morning Ireland this morning, the bank still had an onus to maintain confidentiality. He said he was satisfied that there was no conflict in the fact that Peter Sutherland, who was chairman of AIB at that time, was also former director of GPA and had been Attorney General under a Fine Gael-led government. He said that decisions about writing off bad debts are taken at management level, not by the chairman or the board.
