Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Picking up on Senator O'Donnell's questions, there was an article in The Irish Timeson 10 January of this year. AIB sues more than twice as many borrowers as Bank of Ireland. It was based on an analysis of High Court cases and looked at summary judgment records. It stated "AIB has scaled back its use of the hawkish "summary judgment" debt recovery tactic, but remains, by far, the Irish lender most likely to sue its customers in the High Court, according to an analysis of official records by The Irish Times."

Court records show that in 2017 AIB applied for debt summary judgments on 755 occasions, down 37% from the 2016 level. In 2016 AIB was four times more likely to apply for a summary judgment than Bank of Ireland which in 2016 sought just over 308. The evidence which is based on hard facts - actual court filings - seems to be that AIB is the most aggressive bank in pursuing SMEs and doing so in an adversarial, litigious manner, namely, going to court to get summary judgments which then in some ways narrows the capacity to enable an agreement to be reached.