IFSRA report into AIB described as 'damp squib'

The IFSRA report into the latest AIB scandal has been described as a damp squib which fails to get to the heart of the AIB overcharging…

The IFSRA report into the latest AIB scandal has been described as a damp squib which fails to get to the heart of the AIB overcharging scandal.

Fine Gael's finance spokesman Mr Richard Bruton said that while the public will be "dismayed" at the findings of the report, AIB has escaped sanction despite evidence of an elaborate cover-up.

"It is hard to escape a feeling that this report although titled 'final' leaves other questions hanging," Mr Bruton said.

It is not clear who sanctioned the original establishment of Faldor which undertook 'inappropriate favourable deal allocations' to the benefit of certain executives who were unaware of this activity.

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Labour's finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton, described the IFSRA report as "very disappointing" as it fails to identify those in the AIB management responsible for the breaches and lapses highlighted in the report.

Ms Burton said the report fails to indicate the positions held by senior staff involved in breaches of regulation, when the board of AIB was advised, and whether or not the audit committee of the AIB board was made aware of these issues, and whether or not it took any action.

IFSRA's chief executive Mr Liam O'Reilly declined to name the executives involved in the overcharging scandal as he said he didn't wish to prejudice the disciplinary process under way at the bank.

Business group, ISME, called the report a 'damp squib' and "a total let-off" for the country's biggest bank.

ISME chief executive, Mr Mark Fielding, described the report as "weak and ineffectual" and "tells us very little about the activities of AIB that the general public and small business community do not already know."

ISME called on IFSRA to show some "real teeth" by carrying out an in-depth investigation of the whole banking sector to expose overcharging and other customer abuses.