Dear Colleague,
The past few days have again seen the banking sector, both at home and internationally, go through an extremely volatile time.
The Irish Government's decision to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank, together with a variety of other developments here, in the US, the UK and in other parts of the Eurozone, have all had a knock-on effect on share prices and have led to renewed uncertainty and speculation as to what is going to happen next.
I can understand that seeing our share price drop severely is worrying and that you may wonder whether some of the speculation might be true.
Share prices continually rise and fall as a result of many factors and the present extreme volatility in the financial sector serves to exacerbate and exaggerate that process. AIB continues to be a strong, sound, internationally diversified organisation which serves a huge range of personal and business customers across a wide variety of sectors.
We have the depth and strength required to manage our way through this period of uncertainty as an independent organisation and I believe we will do so.
Everyone in AIB Group has a role to play in dealing with these difficult times and I can assure you that the Chairman, myself, my colleagues on the Group Executive Committee and the Board are all focussed on ensuring that AIB remains well equipped to tackle whatever challenges this environment may present.
I know I can, as always, rely on all of you to play your part too. Whether you are working in RoI, Northern Ireland, Britain, Poland, the US or in any of our other locations throughout the world, I would just ask two things of you:-
Firstly, don't become sidetracked by rumour and speculation. At times like this there is always, understandably, a surfeit of both.
Secondly, and most importantly, maintain your focus on the day to day business of doing your job and looking after your customers. I cannot over emphasise how important that is as AIB has a key part to play in the revival of the economies in which we operate.
Thank you all, once again, for your continued commitment.
Eugene Sheehy
Group Chief Executive
(19/01/2009)