Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland: Allied Irish Banks

2:00 pm

Mr. Mark Bourke:

It is the rating agencies, such as Fitch and Standard & Poors, which give us a rating. What would have driven our ratings over a long term is the history of the bank and, in particular, the fact that we have a singularly large proportion of non-performing loans versus the total loans that the banks have. That means that our rating would be lower than the premium banks, for instance, across Europe, and that translates into our cost of funding when we issue debt securities in the markets. Everyone's cost of funding has come down but ours is still consequently higher as we have lower ratings across the board as a result of our history.

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