A legal dispute between AIB and several former senior executives over allegedly secretly scheming to take over the bank’s international financial services business has been settled, the Commercial Court was told yesterday.

AIB had claimed the executives and a number of European-based financial services firms had unlawfully conspired with a rival business to take over the clients, business and staff of AIB’s International Financial Services (IFS) business after the bank decided to sell it to another group, Capita.

The executives and a number of defendant companies – Centralis based in Luxembourg, Centralis Switzerland and Centralis Hungary – had all denied the bank’s claims.

The case was due to open yesterday before Mr Justice Peter Charleton and was listed to run for four weeks but Michael McDowell SC, for AIB, said the action against all parties had been settled and could be struck out. No details of the settlement were revealed.

The action was against former AIB executives Aidan Foley, formerly of Grawn, Kilmacthomas, Wexford; Gerry McEvoy, formerly of Shandon Park, Phibsboro, Dublin; Derek O’Reilly of Fernleigh Drive, Castleknock, Dublin; and Joe Walsh, formerly of Grosvenor Terrace, Monkstown, Co Dublin.

Similar actions against two other executives were settled some time ago.

In the action, AIB claimed the executives were behind a management buyout offer for the AIB IFS which did not go ahead. When AIB decided in June 2011 to sell the business to Capita, it claimed the executives set up a rival business to take over IFS business in a scheme known as “plan b”.

AIB claimed, after 25 directors and employees left IFS between June and August 2011, Capita had reduced an offer for IFS from €55 million to €33 million. The defendants’ alleged actions led to it incurring significant loss and damage, the bank alleged. The defendants denied AIB’s claims, denied any wrongdoing and denied that confidential information belonging to AIB was passed on to a rival.