Present estimates of bailing out the banks

Certainly Sean Fitzgerald, David Drumm and Michael Fingleton have attracted widespread outrage at their perceived greed, incompetence and perhaps more. But as the latest estimates of the cost of bailing out the banks, totalling €70bn, show, the cost for AIB is going to be just as excruciating as the cost of bailing out Anglo and INBS.

The bailout information comes from

(a) the Department of Finance in September 2010 which showed €46bn committed to the banks.

and (b) the release from the Central Bank of Ireland/Department of Finance on Thursday last which showed an additional €24bn committed.

And here are the totals by institution

And finally, here’s a little chart to show that relatively-speaking, AIB’s position is really no better than Anglo’s or INBS’s. And frankly Bank of Ireland and Irish Life aren’t great either.

I suppose in fairness, part of the injections into AIB and BoI is “buffer capital”, and given the banks subjected to stress tests are projected to make a combined total of €3.9bn in operating profits in the three years to end 2013, then who knows, we might get some part back. Also there is talk about burden-sharing with subordinated bondholders and some part of the capital needs might be met privately. But still, for all that, it is surprising that there hasn’t been a greater outpouring of outrage towards AIB in particular, but Bank of Ireland and Irish Life also. The Independent today reports that as the time for the stress test announcements grew near last Thursday afternoon, former AIB CEO, Eugene Sheehy was to be found on a bench in the grounds of Trinity College where he is now reportedly a history student with an annual income from his pension put at €458,000. “It’s a sad day” was his reaction to the day’s announcements before donning his Stealth-technology membrane and disappearing into the university buildings. The fact is that the losses at his former bank are every bit as painful as those in the other institutions.

Advertisement