There’s been a lot of speculation on which Irish bank is most vulnerable to collapse in the present crisis. Most commentators seem to think that Anglo Irish will be the first to go but I think AIB is most at risk.
After all, AIB is the most powerful and most ruthless of all the banks. It has always been allowed to operate pretty much as it likes, has never been properly investigated despite robbing millions from its own customers and the State.
It seems obvious that such a powerful and untouchable entity would be much more likely to take huge risks in property speculation and development confident that a facilitatory regulatory regime was always close to hand should things go wrong.
Of course, this is just gut instinct on my part.
AIB are too smart to get caught, I’d take the view that they had the inside line and saw the peak of the irish property market when they sold their prime business real estate headquarters in ballsbridge 2 years ago, with an agreement to rent it back over the next 10 years. they knew some shit was bound to go down.
You could be right there Spacedog, I’d forgotten about that deal