The AIB Fiasco Highlights the Problems of Dependence & Over-Reliance on Profiteering Commercial Banks.
By the Public Banking Forum of Ireland (PBFI) 24/7/22
Serving the Irish public and our economy is not AIB’s priority;
“… talk to the machine in the corner and, by the way, this branch will be cashless and/or closed as soon as we can get away with it.”
AIB tested the ground recently with its announcement to render 70 branches cashless. Public pressure via the media, protests at branches and even intervention by Lawyers for Justice forced their retreat, for the moment. If the State did not have a 70% stake in the Bank, and the possibility of reprisal on government by the voting public at the next election, they probably would have proceeded with their plan.
Never Enough Profits:
AIB banking €150m boost from ECB’s big interest rate increase.1
Ireland’s largest bank is highly ‘rate sensitive’ and will benefit even more when the ECB hikes again. AIB is set for the biggest benefit among Irish banks following this week’s European Central Bank (ECB) rate rise. The State’s largest lender, which this week made an embarrassing climb-down from its plan to cut cash services at 70 of its branches, stands to gain more than €150m from the half-percentage-point increase.
Allied Irish Bank (AIB) and Bank of Ireland (BoI) are massive international corporations that continuously return c. €1bn plus in profits annually. This is merely the profits which are made available for public scrutiny. They are regarded as systemically important while your deposits are at risk of being bailed-in2 as are the billions of Credit Union savings held with them, should government, the ECB, the BIS or WEF declare ‘a crisis situation’,
AIB on the WEF website.3
Banking should be a service to society and the economy, not a burden on it, or to quote Prof. Steve Keen,
“Finance of course has to make a profit in its own right to be viable; you need a financially successful profitable banking sector. But you don’t need one that’s 30 and 40% of the profits of the economy, because at that level it’s actually syphoning off money being generated in the real production, of the industrial sector, the agricultural sector and the mineral sectors.
Ultimately the financial sector should be the servant of the rest of the economy not the master. But at the moment it’s the master of not just the economy but of the politicians as well. So to break the nexus, we need a complete political shift…..“ Professor Steve Keen – Kingston University, 20144
Control of the Credit of the Nation:
Should the Boards of Allied Irish Bank (AIB), Bank of Ireland (BoI) and Permanent TSB (PTSB) have virtually complete control over the credit of the Irish nation, i.e. the amount of credit created, who has access to it, and the purpose for which it can be used?
The Central Bank of Ireland (CBoI), on the 22nd July, stated that everyone should have available to them a full range of basic banking facilities. This is becoming an ever more unattainable goal with our dependence on the elusive commercial banking monopoly which abandons any and all commitments at every available opportunity, without reference to the people they purportedly serve or those to whom they should be answerable.
Credit for the ‘productive economy’, i.e. that which creates new jobs and services, is what creates prosperity. The Irish pillar banks have failed miserably in this regard and instead excel at manufacturing boom-bust cycles via credit-for-asset purchases and property speculation, while starving the productive economy of credit.
Available data verifies this as fact.
ISME, the Irish SME Association Q3 ’21 Bank Watch Report:5
- Demand for credit is at 33%, remaining the same as in Q2 ’21.
- Loan refusal rates increase from 22% to 37%
The State established Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) is a fraud on businesses and the public; it is essentially a system by which the pillar banks are subsidised by the state, under the guise of supporting SMEs.6
The Bank of International Settlement (BIS), European Central Bank (ECB), World Economic Forum (WEF) and globalists plan for the draconian cashless society and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) i.e., Complete Control via programmable currency.
At a 2020 IMF Summit Agustin Carstens, General manager of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) explained that “for the general use” (of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)) “we tend to establish the equivalence with cash, and there is a huge difference … in cash we don’t know, for example, who is using a $100 dollar bill today … a key difference in with the CBDC is that central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability and also, we will have the technology to enforce that.”7
Irish Banks Scalping Irish Mortgage Customers:
June, 2022 Example for Ireland & Comparison with Germany.
€350k House – 90% LTV (Loan to Value) – Borrowing €315k – 30 Year term – Fixed for 10 Years.
Interest Rate in Ireland: 2.85%8
Total Interest Repayments Ireland €162,556
Interest Rate in Germany: 1.1%
Total interest Germany Community-Public Bank €54,971.
Saving in Germany compared to Ireland
€107,584 saved over life of Mortgage
€3,586 p/year | €299 p/month
Community-Public Banking could save you c. €100k on your mortgage!
Creating Ireland’s Alternative Banking Force:9
In 2017 the PBFI published a 60 page Preliminary Proposal ‘Creating Ireland’s Alternative Banking Force’ incorporating the Credit Unions, the Post Office Network and new Regional Community-Public Banks.
It is well past time the recommendations of this report were implemented. Its recommendations are based on well proven banking models from around the world and from the foremost experts in this field in the world.
70% of banking in Germany is Community-Public Banking, with the Commercial banks having only 12% of the market there. It has created the 4th largest economy in the world with exports to match China. A system that is 200 years old and has never received a cent of taxpayers money.
It is time for the public and all politicians to demand the PBFIs recommendations be implemented.
Read the PBFI 2017 Proposal https://republicirelandbank.com/?page_id=1404
Up and at it Irish Credit Unions:
With your circa. three million members, a dismal c. 2.4% of the market and billions of our savings with you held in the unsafe ‘pillar banks’. It’s time to rally your members support and become a real force in the Irish financial system.
The four largest Canadian Credit Unions, Van City, Desjardin, Queterna and Meridian all have registered Charter Bank subsidiaries – this is how they compete, and how you can too.
You could become a force similar to the Co-operative banks in Germany with over 26% of the market there.
Now is the time to compete or over time you will be annihilated.
Ends
References:
- AIB banking €150m boost from ECB’s big interest rate increase. https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/aib-banking-150m-boost-from-ecbs-big-interest-rate-increase-41861270.html
- Bail-in: In a bail-in, a bank or other institution’s creditors must write off a portion of its debts to save it from insolvency. An example is the rescue deal for the biggest banks in Cyprus in 2013, which required shareholders and creditors to take on some of the costs. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanlewis/2013/05/03/the-cyprus-bank-bail-in-is-another-crony-bankster-scam/
- AIB listed on the WEF website. https://www.weforum.org/organizations/aib-group
- Professor Steve Keen on why the recovery is doomed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HHJ3q2TxEQ
- SME, Q3’21 Bank Watch Report https://www.isme.ie/report/q321-bank-watch-report/
- Doubt cast on the legitimacy of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI)
- General Manager of BIS explaining how CBDCs will look like in comparison to a current cash
- Best Rate Ireland – June 2022 https://www.ccpc.ie/consumers/money-tools/mortgage-comparisons/
- CREATING IRELAND’S ALTERNATIVE BANKING FORCE – 2017 PBFI PROPOSAL https://republicirelandbank.com/?page_id=1404
