The findings of the report into the $691 million foreign exchange loss at AIB's US subsidiary will be released to the public tomorrow, AIB's chairman Mr Lochlann Quinn said today.
"You'll get everything you need tomorrow," Mr Quinn told reporters who asked him when the bank intended to release a summary of an investigation.
Mr Quinn, who refused to answer further questions, had just left a meeting in Dublin where top bank officials were into a second day of meetings on the report by US banking expert Mr Eugene Ludwig into the biggest currency trading scandal since Nick Leeson brought down Barings Bank in 1995.
The board of AIB and its US unit Allfirst reconvened this morning after a marathon meeting yesterday to discuss the report into alleged fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, which could cost some executives their jobs.
American banking expert Mr Eugene Ludwig, a former US Comptroller of the Currency, presented his report to the boards of the two banks at AIB’s headquarters in Ballsbridge, Dublin yesterday.
AIB commissioned the report after it discovered currency trader Mr John Rusnak had racked up $691 million in losses over five years at Allfirst Financial-- among the biggest trading scandals since Nick Leeson brought down Barings Bank in 1995.
Analysts and market sources are keen to pin down whether senior executives in Dublin, possibly including AIB chief executive Mr Michael Buckley, should have acted sooner to clamp down on the losses at a small unit with revenues of only about $10 million a year.
It has not yet been explained how Mr Rusnak's currency trades, which were losing the banks tens of millions of dollars at a time, could have gone undetected for so long.
The report, which has been kept tightly under wraps, will touch on information relayed to Mr Buckley last May about big currency trades at Allfirst.
Mr Buckley has said the first he knew of the losses was in early February. The earlier tip has been described as an "informal comment" which prompted Mr Buckley to make inquiries to Allfirst which apparently satisfied him.
Media reports said that an e-mail last May to Mr Buckley, who was then AIB's chief executive designate, had said there were "no unusual trades" at Allfirst.
In the e-mail on May 25th which was sent by Mr David Cronin, head of treasury at Allfirst told Mr Buckley: "To bring closure to our conversation earlier about foreign exchange, we have no unusual trades."
Mr Cronin has been seen as among those whose position could be at risk as a result of the inquiry, while Mr Buckley, who took over as chief executive last year, is seen as more secure.