PROFIT growth of 19% at US bank M&T exceeded expectations but it had a modest positive impact on the shares price of its largest shareholder, AIB bank.

ROGUE AIB currency trader John Rusnak began a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence yesterday for hiding over €648.8 million in losses at Ireland’s largest bank.

FORMER currency trader John Rusnak will plead guilty to criminal charges in the €750 million trading scandal that rocked Allied Irish Banks this year, sources close to the investigation said last night.

Allied Irish Banks PLC has reached an agreement with US, Irish and Maryland regulators to conduct reforms after a dealer at its Baltimore-based subsidiary was accused of covering up a massive five-year fraud.

AIB chief executive Michael Buckley has said the suspected fraud at a US subsidiary is "a very heavy blow".