Allied Irish Banks (AIB) will hold a crisis board meeting today after a US currency trader accused of defrauding it of up to $750 million denied taking the money.
The meeting at AIB's headquarters in Dublin today would try to determine "the complexity of what is involved and why the systems did not work and whether some people didn't do their job," AIB chairman Mr Lochlann Quinn said.
Mr John Rusnak, the trader at the centre of the scandal, said through his lawyer he had never gone missing and was talking to federal authorities in Baltimore.
AIB said Mr Rusnak tried to disguise huge dollar/yen foreign exchange losses at its US unit Allfirst Financial in Baltimore with fictitious trades. The bank said it suspected "internal and external collusion" but said the bank was in no danger of collapse.
The affair pushed down AIB's share price by some 23 per cent yesterday in markets already shaken by the collapse of US energy giant Enron.
AIB shares rebounded 3 per cent today. In early trading, they stood at €11.71 in Dublin, up 36 cent, and in London they rose 40p to £11.70.
AIB contacted the FBI to help find Mr Rusnak after a review by the bank raised questions about his trades. But Baltimore lawyer Mr Bruce Lamdin said that Mr Rusnak and his attorney, Mr David Irwin, held talks with the US Attorney's office in Baltimore yesterday.
Mr Lamdin denied Mr Rusnak had gone missing. "He's been home with his family, quite frankly," he said.
Mr Irwin earlier said his client did not steal from AIB. "If they're claiming that he stole money, that won't pan out. I'd be surprised if they ever came up with evidence that he stole money," he said.
The FBI told Reutersit had not issued a warrant for Mr Rusnak, who lives with his wife, Linda, and two children in an affluent Baltimore community.