Bank of Ireland has announced a plan to exchange some of its subordinated bonds for new bonds in order to strengthen its financial position.
The bonds involved had an original face value of around €3.1 billion. Under the proposal, the bank would offer the bondholders a total of up to €1.5 billion in new 13-month Government-guaranteed senior bonds. The move is at boosting Bank of Ireland's capital strength.
The bonds involved are currently trading at significant discounts to their original prices on the bond markets. Subordinated bonds are usually given a higher rate of interest as they run more of a risk of not being re-paid.
Bank of Ireland needs to raise an additional €2 billion to meet new targets set by the Central Bank.
The offer starts today and the results are expected on December 17.
BoI says ATMs working after problem
Bank of Ireland says its ATM and Laser card systems are working properly again after a technical problem yesterday, which also caused disruption to its online and phone banking services.
'We can confirm that ATM and Laser functionality is now fully restored,' the bank said. It said its online banking services were currently being brought online as a priority.
The bank said normal processing of items such as direct debits, standing orders and international payments were unaffected.
Bank of Ireland apologised to ATM customers who may have had a transaction declined or received less cash than they required yesterday.
It also confirmed that some customers withdrew funds in excess of their available balance which has created an unauthorised overdraft position for them for which they are liable.
'For customers who became inadvertently overdrawn Bank of Ireland will on this occasion refund any overlimit fees applied in respect of transactions conducted during the affected period and will also allow an interest free period for the amount involved,' it said.
Yesterday's computer problem meant over 1.2 million bank of Ireland customers lost access to to phone, ATM and internet banking.
The system was offline between 9.20am and 10.30pm last night. This meant that people with money in their account could not withdraw as much as they wanted , but those low on funds were able to access more than their limit.
A spokesperson for the bank said this resulted in 'minor exploitation' with customers withdrawing funds in excess of their account limits.
A spokesman for the Central Bank said the bank is in close contact with Bank of Ireland in relation to the difficulties it has experienced over the past two days with its consumer IT systems.
