Country’s two biggest banks ‘must be preserved’

IRELAND must help preserve its two biggest banks, AIB and Bank of Ireland, and look at whether the others need to be reconfigured, central bank Governor John Hurley said yesterday.

“Clearly, we need the two main banks to be strong and to continue but we have to look at the rest of the sector and see what is the configuration of banking that this economy needs,” Mr Hurley told a news conference.

Earlier yesterday he said the establishment of Ireland’s bad bank project would raise the prospect of consolidation in the financial sector.