AIB pay back Irish Government nearly two billion euros during 2016
State-owned Allied Irish Banks (AIB) returned €1.8bn to the Irish government in the first half of 2016 it announced today.
Revealing results for the first half of 2016, it said it had returned €6.5bn (£5.5bn) to the Irish taxpayer since being bailed-out by the state in 2010.
Reflecting on pre-tax profits of €1bn for the first six months, chief executive Bernard Byrne said: "These results reflect the underlying strength of the financial performance of AIB and our robust capital position.
"We are a customer focused digitally enabled bank and our financial performance, strong franchise and leading market propositions, position us well for future challenges and opportunities."
In 2010 the Irish government effectively nationalised AIB, providing a reported €21bn of funding. This was less than half of the £45bn the UK government spent saving RBS two years earlier.
The reimbursement to the state takes the form of repaying contingent convertible bonds that were to scheduled to mature today.
AIB also revealed that impaired loan values had reduced to €11.3bn, down over a third since the start of the year. New lending was also on the up with €6.1bn new approvals agreed during the first six months of 2016, an eight per cent increase in Ireland.