How AIB went from boom to bust and back again
August 2008:
AIB
reports a €1.28 billion pretax profit for the first half of 2008 and pays a €270 million dividend as most banks globally hoard money to deal with the impending financial crisis.
September 2008:
Government issues controversial bank guarantee covering AIB and the State's five other main domestic lenders. Irish financial industry teetered on brink of collapse after Wall Street bank
Lehman Brothers
collapses.
October 2008:
AIB chief executive Eugene Sheehy rules out bailout, saying 'We'd rather die than raise equity'.
March 2009:
AIB reports loss for 2008 in its unit in the Republic, the first since group was set up in 1966.
READ MORE
May 2009:
Sheehy, finance director John O'Donnell, and chairman Dermot Gleeson quit as taxpayers prepare to inject initial €3.5 billion into ailing lender.
September 2010:
AIB agrees to sell Polish unit Bank Zachodni WBK to Spain's Santander to raise €2.5 billion of capital. The Central Bank says AIB needs additional €3 billion – two months after bank passes European stress tests. Group managing director Colm Doherty and chairman Dan O'Connor signal they will step down.
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Donohoe poised to lift remaining bank pay caps after selling last AIB shares
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October 2010:
AIB raises $2 billion (€1.5 billion) from sale of its 22.4 per cent stake in American lender M&T Bank.
November 2010:
AIB reveals its reliance on emergency Central Bank funding has tripled in five months to €27 billion as companies and customers pull money amid worsening crisis. The Government agrees to €67.5 billion international bailout as soaring cost of rescuing the banks become too much for State to handle.
December 2010:
State takes control of AIB two days before Christmas
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March 2011:
AIB posts record €10.3 billion pretax loss for 2010 and is ordered to raise €14.8 billion after round of banking stress tests ordered by the bailout troika. New minister for finance Michael Noonan directs AIB to take over EBS Building Society.
July 2011:
AIB bailout bill peaks at €20.8 billion and bank completes two-year process of inflicting €5 billion of losses on junior bondholders.
December 2011:
AIB appoints Irish man David Duffy, a former executive at South Africa's Standard Bank, as chief executive.
March 2012:
AIB unveils plans to cut 2,500 jobs.
June 2013:
AIB's level of soured loans peaks at €31 billion – more than third of remaining loans.
David Duffy, former CEO of AIB.
January 2015:
David Duffy announces he's leaving AIB to join Glasgow-based Clydesdale Bank, now known as CYBG plc.
March 2015:
AIB reveals it swung into a €915 million profit in 2014 as it begins to free up money previously set aside to absorb bad loans.
May 2015:
AIB names Bernard Byrne, head of retail and business banking unit, as chief executive.
December 2015:
AIB begins to repay its bailout, redeeming €1.7 billion of preference shares issued to the State during the crisis.
August 2016:
AIB and Bank of Ireland fare among the worst in European Union banking stress tests.
December 2016:
AIB admits about 3,000 of its customers had been wrongly denied a tracker mortgage rate over past decade, as Central Bank oversees an industry-wide review of overcharging on home loans. Bank would ultimately set aside about €600 million to cover cost of tracker issue.
March 2017:
AIB pays State almost €280 million in first dividend in almost nine years, after posting €1.7 billion pretax profit for 2016.
AIB chief executive Colin Hunt. Photograph Nick Bradshaw for The Irish Times
June 2017:
State sells 28.8 per stake in AIB in initial public offering (IPO) for €4.40 a share, or €3.4 billion in total.
March 2019:
Colin Hunt becomes CEO and Donal Galvin CFO after Bernard Byrne and Mark Bourke quit their respective roles.
April 2020:
AIB shares fall below €1 during the early stages of Covid-19 pandemic as investors fret about ultimate cost of payment breaks for borrowers affected by the crisis. Expected defaults crisis never materialises.
January 2022:
Government resumes selldown of AIB stake, which stands at 71 per cent, by drip-feeding stock on to the market.
June 2022:
AIB and its EBS unit fined total of and its EBS unit fined total of €96.7 million by the Central Bank for their roles in the tracker mortgage scandal. The earnings outlook for Irish banks improves dramatically as European Central Bank starts to raise interest rates. AIB agrees to buy much of Ulster Bank's loans as UK-owned lender exits the market.
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Why bother with AIB's new non-green mortgage rates?
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June 2023:
State's stake in AIB falls below 50 per cent level
March 2025:
AIB posts record net profit of €2.35 billion
June 2025:
Government sells its last shares in AIB. The bank is on track to come up about €700 million short on repaying its rescue bill.
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