Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance in respect of the €1.1billion top-up made by Allied Irish Banks to that Bank’s group pension scheme in August 2012, set out the contact or contacts the Bank had with him or his Department regarding to the transaction, specifically the date and nature of the contact or contacts. [49491/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that a Relationship Framework was specified and published in March 2012. This document defines the nature of the relationship and interaction between the Minister for Finance and AIB. I can confirm to the Deputy that as the asset transfer to AIB’s pension scheme was required to fund the Bank’s Early Retirement and Voluntary Severance Programme, the Department of Finance was consulted on numerous occasions during 2012 in relation to this transaction.

However, I must point out that this transaction was a commercial decision for the Bank. I am informed that this transfer was approved by AIB’s Board of Directors and also the Bank’s deleveraging committee, which includes non-voting observers from the Department of Finance and the Central Bank of Ireland.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance in respect of the €1.1billionn top-up made by Allied Irish Banks to the group pension scheme in August 2012, if he provided approval for this transaction in a bank in which he owns 99.8% of the shares; and if so, the date of the provision of any such approval. [49492/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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AIB has confirmed to me that the transfer of €1.1bn (nominal) loan assets to the AIB Defined Benefit Pension Scheme was approved by the AIB Board and the Bank's Deleveraging Committee whose members include the Department of Finance and the Central Bank in observatory capacities. The Deleveraging Committee, of which Department of Finance acts in an observatory capacity only, approved the transaction on 27 March 2012.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance in respect of the €1.1billion top-up made by Allied Irish Banks to the group pension scheme in August 2012, if he will identify in the stress testing undertaken by the Central Bank of Ireland with Barclays Capital, BlackRock and the Boston Consulting Group in early 2011 which resulted in the publication of the Financial Measures Programme on 31st March 2011, where, in this work was the €1.1billion shortfall in the AIB pension fund examined or identified. [49493/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank has informed me that the Capital Requirements Directive and the Central Bank set the rules around the calculation of the applicable capital base for credit institutions. These rules include reference to defined benefit pension deficits as these can affect the capital base of regulated entities. In a letter from the Financial Regulator to industry in 2005, banks were informed that those applying IAS 19/FRS 17 are allowed to add back to Tier 1 Capital the amount of the defined benefit pension liability that has accrued in relation to Irish pension schemes in their financial statements and to deduct an amount equal to the sum of (i) the Deficit under the Minimum Funding Requirement plus (ii) three years Supplementary Contributions. A subsequent letter issued by the Financial Regulator in 2009 amended the treatment of the Deficit under the Minimum Funding Requirement element such that credit institutions were required to include at least the Minimum Funding Requirement in its calculation of pension risk under Pillar 2 capital calculations.

The draft Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) requires the removal of most prudential filters, including the Irish DB scheme pension filter detailed above. Article 461 of the draft CRR, relating to transitional provisions, provides for regulated entities to apply a phased approach to filters and deductions “required under national transposition measures for Articles 57, 61, 63, 63a and 66 of Directive 2006/48/EC” with a five year implementation period. The transitional provisions are the subject of on-going negotiation between the European Parliament (EP) and Council.

The capital base and capital requirements of the PCAR banks were assessed under PCAR and included in this assessment was forecast deductions for defined benefit pension deficits and subsequent capital filters under base and stress scenarios. The FMP report did not disclose details of the assumed levels of deduction for pension deficits. The focus on the PCAR was the forecast income, capital requirements and losses (particularly loan losses) in the three-year period.

The Central Bank included in the PCAR the forecast deduction for defined benefit pension deficits and subsequent capital filters under base and stress scenarios. In addition the Central Bank considered the implications of Basel III (namely CRD IV/ CRR). The PCAR tolerance levels and capital basis were set in accordance with the Central Bank’s definition of Core Tier 1 under the prevailing Capital Requirements Directive rules as at end-March 2011.

It is important to note, that the quality of capital in the Irish banking system has increased significantly as a result of lower tier capital buy backs and Government equity contributions. Whilst it is clear that the Basel III rules impose more conservative deductions than is currently the case, following a recapitalisation to levels determined by the 2011 PCAR, the FMP report stated that all four banks should comfortably meet Basel III Common Equity Tier 1 ratio on a phase-in basis under both the base case and stress case scenarios. The combined surplus to the minimum phase-in Common Equity Tier 1 under the PCAR base case under PCAR was estimated at the time as circa 13.3bn and 3.7bn under the stress case. Three of the banks would also meet the full 2019 minimum standard in the 2013 base case scenario.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance in respect of the €1.1billion top-up made by Allied Irish Banks to the group pension scheme in August 2012, if he will estimate the capital value needed by a pension fund in order to make an annual payment of €529,000 to a scheme member, as is reportedly the case with annual payments to the former chief executive officer of AIB, Mr Eugene Sheehy. [49494/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the transfer of assets to the pension fund earlier this year was undertaken in order to facilitate the early retirement component of the voluntary severance program of the bank. Had the transfer of assets not taken place, the early retirement component of the voluntary severance could not have proceeded as it would have required a cash contribution from the bank. The voluntary severance scheme in the bank overall is expected to result in annual savings to AIB in excess of €200m which is a critical component of AIB’s return to long term viability. It is highly likely, that in the absence of the early retirement scheme, the bank would have been unable to achieve its target staff departure figures on a voluntary basis which would likely have required the need for significant numbers of compulsory redundancies. AIB informs me that for an employee retiring at age 60 with 40 years pensionable service and an annual pension of €529,000, AIB estimates that the capital value accumulated in a fund to provide this annual figure would be approx. €10.5m.