AIB is under pressure to sell off its prized US, British and Polish assets as the Government anticipates it could become a majority stakeholder in the bank.

AIB’s stockbrokers breached money laundering rules but did not break the law by share deals using firms based in offshore tax havens, it was claimed today.

THE arbitrary remuneration limit of €500,000 on the top job at AIB will make it very difficult for the group to attract somebody from outside the bank, according to Oliver Gilvarry, head of research at Dolmen Securities.

AIB made profits of more than €4m per day last year, it emerged today.

IN his first major statement about his plans for that AIB Group, new chief executive Eugene Sheehy said yesterday he had no intention of trying to reinvent the wheel.

SPECULATION is mounting that AIB will sell out of its US minority stake in M&T valued at €2.3 billion.

NOT one of the names under investigation as a result of the AIB foreign exchange banking scandal will be named in the second report by financial watchdog IFSRA into the affair.

AIB has turned to the man who investigated the activities of rogue trader John Rusnak to advise on the bank’s risk control and compliance.

AIB IS to set up a confidential whistle-blowers' helpline to avert further scandals. Chief executive Michael Buckley admitted there was a culture of self-censorship in the bank.

The results of an independent investigation into the foreign-exchange overcharging scandal at AIB are released today. But how damaging will they prove to be? Conor Keane and Paul O'Brien report.

MANY analysts are keeping faith with the country's two major banks recommending their shares to investors.

THE AIB overcharging scandal deepened last night after it emerged the bank suspended a senior official on full pay.

The pathetic attempt by executives of Allied Irish Bank to shrug off responsibility for the scandalous €14 million foreign exchange rip-off by deflecting blame to junior staff is almost as outrageous as the deception itself.

AIB chief executive Michael Buckley has described overcharging on foreign exchange as an ‘administrative cock-up’.

THE €150 million loss recorded by AIB on the sale of British asset management arm Govett was defended by chairman Dermot Gleeson at the bank's annual general meeting yesterday.

M&T BANK, the American regional bank in which AIB has a 22.5% stake, had mixed news for investors yesterday as it disappointed with its first quarter profits, but said full-year results would still be on track.

ALMOST €800 million was wiped off the value of AIB shares yesterday despite the bank making €2.75m in profit a day in 2003. The country’s largest bank made €1.01 billion last year, down from €1.37bn in 2002.

AN ex-bank official has been arrested by garda fraud squad officers investigating claims that customers of Allied Irish Bank were cheated out of almost €2 million.

AIB’s investment in M&T, the American bank in which it has a 22.5% stake, is significantly undervalued by the market and not reflected in the AIB share price, according to Davy Stockbrokers.

Allied Irish Bank is to sue two other banks which it believes were involved in the fraud operation that led to their US bank loosing more than half a billion dollars last year.

AIB’s Allfirst bad luck story continues. Yesterday the bank confirmed it was fined $4,000 for a breach of the US trade embargo with Libya.

AIB recorded its biggest-ever profit last year, as the bank earned almost €4 million a day.

IS it naive to think AIB, which has just returned the biggest profits ever

The country’s biggest bank, AIB, last year built up one the largest profits recorded by an Irish company.

AIB SHAREHOLDERS should see dividends increase by 12% when the company announces its results for the year ending December 31 2002, stockbrokers Dolmen Securities predict.

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.

Rogue trader John Rusnak, whose $427m losses almost bankrupted an Irish-owned US bank, was today jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

IRATE Allied Irish Banks shareholders in the US, furious at the €658 million rogue trading loss by subsidiary Allfirst, have been told to look to the Irish courts for compensation.

AIB Bank, rocked by a major fraud case this year, said yesterday it had appointed Shom Bhattacharya as chief risk officer in a move designed to prevent a repeat of the scandal.

IT has certainly been an annus horribilis so far for AIB and Bank of Ireland and the question for the dominant forces in Irish banking is where now?

A former currency trader accused of hiding €700m in losses at the Allfirst bank in the US today pleaded guilty to one of the largest bank fraud cases in US history.

John Rusnak, the former foreign currency trader at AIB's Allfirst branch in the United States, is expected to plead guilty today to fraud.

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.

The Dublin market was lower in early trade as stock markets across Europe fell as financial leaders warn there will be no economic recovery until any conflict with Iraq has been solved.

In Dublin the ISEQ index closed 170 points or over 4pc lower, its lowest close in four years.

AIB said it may consider legal action against any third parties found to have helped rogue trader John Rusnak who cost it nearly $700m in foreign currency exchange losses, at the firm's US subsidiary AllFirst earlier this year.

AIB has confirmed it is in discussions with American bank M&T for the sale of its US subsidiary Allfirst and the merger is expected to be announced later today.

AIB is reported to be near agreement to sell its troubled Allfirst subsidiary in the US in a deal worth $3bn (€3.06bn).

Ireland’s AIB banking group returned a 5% profits increase in the six months to June, their interim results showed today.

The president and chief executive of Allfirst, the US division of Allied Irish Banks that was rocked by a €700m currency trading scandal, has resigned

John Rusnak - the trader charged with fraudulently hiding his €520m in losses - denies he was protecting his six figure income.