{"id":1445,"date":"2022-07-26T19:04:57","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T19:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/republicirelandbank.com\/?p=1445"},"modified":"2022-10-14T10:22:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T10:22:17","slug":"the-aib-fiasco-highlights-the-problems-of-dependence-over-reliance-on-profiteering-commercial-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicirelandbank.com\/?p=1445","title":{"rendered":"The AIB Fiasco Highlights the Problems of Dependence & Over-Reliance on Profiteering Commercial Banks."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By the Public Banking Forum of Ireland (PBFI)<\/em> 24\/7\/22<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serving the Irish public and our economy is not AIB\u2019s priority;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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AIB tested the ground<\/strong> 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<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Never Enough Profits:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIB banking \u20ac150m boost from ECB\u2019s big interest rate increase.<\/strong>1<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ireland\u2019s 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\u2019s European Central Bank (ECB) rate rise. The State\u2019s 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 \u20ac150m from the half-percentage-point increase.

Allied Irish Bank (AIB) and Bank of Ireland (BoI) are massive international corporations <\/strong>that continuously return c. \u20ac1bn 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<\/sup> as are the billions of Credit Union savings held with them, should government, the ECB, the BIS or WEF declare \u2018a crisis situation\u2019,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIB on the WEF website.<\/strong>3<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Banking should be a service to society<\/strong> and the economy,<\/strong> not a burden on it, or to quote Prof. Steve Keen,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinance 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\u2019t need one that\u2019s 30 and 40% of the profits of the economy, because at that level it\u2019s actually syphoning off money being generated in the real production, of the industrial sector, the agricultural sector and the mineral sectors.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately the financial sector should be the servant of the rest of the economy not the master. But at the moment it\u2019s the master of not just the economy but of the politicians as well. So to break the nexus, we need a complete political shift\u2026..\u201c <\/em>Professor Steve Keen \u2013 Kingston University, 20144<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Control of the Credit of the Nation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Central Bank of Ireland<\/strong> (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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Credit for the \u2018productive economy\u2019<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Available data verifies this as fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISME, the Irish SME Association Q3 \u201921 Bank Watch<\/strong> Report:<\/strong>5<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n