Full coverage: AIB

The US vulture fund, allied to Link Financial and Deutsche Bank, had not acquired NPL portfolios of this size from Irish banks in several years.

In 2021 AIB announced a redress scheme for the roughly 2,500 investors stung by the collapse of the highly-geared UK commercial property funds. But five years on, hundreds remain left out in the cold.

The Belfry funds were sold as a “no-brainer” investment, but it became one of Ireland’s biggest financial scandals. In a two-part podcast investigation, we trace the rise and fall of AIB’s ill-fated property funds.

After years of watching competitors leave the market, the Irish banking sector is about to receive some stiff competition this year.

Creative agency Droga5 has held the AIB contract for 17 years but it is not bidding to retain it. A winner is not expected before January.

Several dozen Belfry investors sold “a pig in a poke” protested outside of the Central Bank this Thursday, demanding more action from the regulator to force AIB to repay their investment.

Last month, the Belfry Redress Group wrote to the Central Bank asking why some investors were refunded and others not. Now, the Central Bank wants to know more.

The Irish banks – particularly PTSB – are sometimes said to be too small to carry all the costs that come with life as a modern bank. Now that Ulster Bank and KBC are gone, and PTSB is bigger, how has it changed?

RGRE, the property group headed by Johnny Ronan, remains in talks with an international investor about the refinancing of loans relating to the assets.

AIB alleged the sister-in-law of €5.8 million judgment debtor Justin Burke may be in league with him in attempts to frustrate enforcement. Her husband, a well-known Galway hotelier, says nothing could be further from the truth.