AIB wrote down debts of over €1m for 83 customers

The customers account for 0.05% of the 150,000 people who received some deal from AIB due to debt distress in the last 10 years

Wed, 22 Mar, 2023 - 14:29

Emer Walsh

More than 80 people have received write-downs of over €1m in deals with AIB, the bank has disclosed to the Oireachtas Finance Committee.

In written replies to the committee seen by the Irish Examiner, AIB confirmed that 83 customers received write-downs of over €1m, accounting for 0.05% of the 150,000 people who received some deal from AIB due to debt distress.

AIB also revealed to the committee that of the 1,900 loans that received over 90% debt write downs, 70% were SMEs, with the remaining 30% comprising of mortgages.

In total, the value of write downs for the 1,900 borrowers stood at €533.8m, with the overall value of AIB write downs since 2015 at €3.5bn.

The bank appeared in front of the Oireachtas on March 2nd in the wake of the agreement reached with former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey.

Speaking at the time, AIB revealed that just over 1% of customers who received debt write downs got 90% of the money they owed written off.

"There are "robust criteria" for any debt writedown," said AIB head of retail Jim O’Keeffe, speaking to the Oireachtas Finance Committee.

"All such proposals must be supported by full and transparent disclosure of a customer’s financial affairs," Mr O'Keefe continued, which includes assets owned, income earned or anticipated, and "any other relevant information required by the bank".

The 83 customers that received debt write downs of over €1m represent "outliers" in a "special category," said Aontu leader Peadar Tóibín.

"It's important for AIB to indicate why this small cohort were so special. Why were they treated differently?"

"This is a big chunk of money for a bank that was majority owned by the state. AIB needs to shed more light as to what differentiated these 83 cases from the experience of the vast majority. They have more questions to answer."