AIB has again apologised to customers who were affected by overcharging at the bank, following the publication of the IFSRA progress report today.
'The trust and confidence of our own customers is fundamental to our business and, where it is damaged, I am intent on doing everything possible to rebuild and repair it,' AIB Chairman Dermot Gleeson said in a statement today.
'This objective is shared by our staff, our management and the Board, which makes me confident of achieving this aim,' he said. 'When we do make mistakes, we do our level best to be candid about them, and to put them right,' he added.
AIB said it is determined to identify the disadvantaged customers and make payments as quickly as possible. It said that special software has been installed to create a process by which the foreign exchange charges can be automatically repaid from next month onwards.
The bank said it expects this phase will identify 70% by value and 50% by number of the transactions affected. AIB said a further process has been designed to bring this number as close to 100% as possible and a team has been assembled to match customers and specific transactions. A special advertising campaign will then be launched to encourage customers who have been overcharged to come forward.
AIB has appointed Eugene Ludwig, Managing Partner of the Promontory Group, to advise it on actions to be taken in relation to all relevant control, risk, compliance and governance issues arising from recent events. He led the investigation into the Allfirst fraud in 2002.
Today's statement also says that the Board has reaffirmed its full support for Group Chief Executive Michael Buckley. The bank said it has decided to seek candidates from outside the bank, as well as internal candidates, as a successor to Mr Buckley, who is due to retire in February 2006. This process will begin later this year.
The bank said its Group Chief Executive is to take responsibility for a programme to strengthen its customer complaints handling. A report will be made to the Board every six months and a new section on customer complaints wil be included in the AIB annual report.
AIB says the issues highlighted by the recent investigations show that in most cases the errors arose from over-reliance on manual systems to apply product benefits and discounts. AIB is now undertaking a major technology investment and it is hoped this new technology will be place in all of the group's branches in Ireland and the UK by mid 2006.
AIB said that investigations are continuing to identify how the bank failed to notify correctly to IFSRA certain forex charges, why this was not corrected for over eight years and who was responsible for this lapse.
'No conclusions in respect of these matters can be drawn until these inquires are completed. Any further findings will be the subject of a later announcement by the Financial Services Regulator and AIB,' the statement concluded.
Speaking at a press conference this morning, AIB Chairman Dermot Gleeson admitted that the bank had 'messed up' in relation to the events of the past few months.
He admitted that there had been a clear breach of the law by the bank in not informing the financial regulator about the problems of overcharging on foreign exchange.
He again apologised to the banks' customers for this serious lapse.
He said that the bank wanted to express its contrition for what had happened. He said that the full story will not be known about what went on in the bank until the second regulator's report is published later in the year.
This report will deal with who knew what in the bank and why action was not taken in relation to the reporting on the overcharging in relation to foreign exchange.
He said that many bank people had been co-operating fully in relation to what he described as the tearing up of the floor boards in the bank in the past couple of weeks to see if there were any further overcharging issues.
AIB has established a customer helpline - 1800 787564 - for customers with queries.
