A SERIOUS CALL For Allied Irish Bank (AIB) To PASS the recent European Central Bank INTEREST CUT To Their CUSTOMERS 6th July 2012 A.I.B. Chief Executive David Duffy has revealed today that they won’t be passing on the recent ECB interest cut to its customers with Standard Variable Rate mortgages. The cut will be automatically passed on to tracker mortgage holders. However the (SVR) mortgages holders are at the mercy of individual banks making the decision to follow suite, which is not a guaranteed move. It is important to remember that it was the Irish Government who took a range of measures to stabilise the Irish banking system since the commencement of the financial crisis in 2008. These measures have included the injection of equity and preference share capital into AIB. As a result of these capital injections, the Irish Government, through the NPRFC, now holds 99.8% of the ordinary shares of AIB and €3.5 billion in 2009 Preference Shares. In addition, the Minister for Finance holds €1.6 billion of contingent capital notes. Then today the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan T.D. tells the Irish Tax payers who bailed out the banks in the first instance, that it is not his role to tell banks what to do? "They have to make commercial decisions. We have been encouraging the banks to fly on their own again and make good commercial decisions” He continued by saying, "But they all have board of directors and on the boards of director, there are directors that were appointed by my predecessor Brian Lenihan as public interest directors and they should have an influence in these matters." Now here is the thing, two of the so called ‘public interest directors’ on A.I.B. Board - the Minister for Finance refers too are Dick Spring Former Tánaiste and former head of the National Treasury Management Agency Michael Somers. Both Spring and Somers are continue to hold these positions today. It is very interesting to note that Somers joined the Board in January 2010 as a nominee of the Minister for Finance under the Government's National Pensions Reserve Fund Act 2000 (as amended) and has been Chairman of the Board Risk Committee since November 2010. In an effort to help join a few dots let me refresh you on what happened in 2011 when A.I.B. (and Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank) also refused to pass on the European Central Bank interest rate cut to its variable rate mortgage customers. A.I. B. caved in when they received pressure from the Irish government and rightly so. The shameful bank owned by the State (us the tax payers) had also refused to pass on two previous interest rate cuts. In November 2011 Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore strongly rebuked the bank executives for their stance at a meeting in government buildings. Mr Gilmore repeated his criticism in the Dáil and called on the banks to reconsider their decision and he threatened action if they did not. At the time AIB decided to reverse its position it was said that they did so because it accepted the reality that the bank was 99.8 per cent State-owned and had to agree to the Government’s wishes. The last sentence above says it all. It confirms without doubt why we should call on AIB to cut the recent ECB interest rate and help the people who helped them. In an effort to do this I am asking you to please sign the petition. When we reach the first 100,000 signatures I will send the information to the following see below. Then with each further 100,000 signatures until we reach one million. Remember ‘All things are Possible’. David Hodgkinson - Chairman (Non-Executive Director) and Nomination & Corporate Governance Committee Chairman David Duffy B.B.S., MA - Chief Executive Officer Bernard Byrne* FCA - Director of Personal & Business Banking and former Group Chief Financial Officer Bernard Byrne FCA - Director of Personal & Business Banking and former Group Chief Financial Officer Simon Ball - FCA, BSc (Economics) - Non-Executive Director Dick Spring BA, BL - Non-Executive Director Dr. Michael Somers B Comm, M.Econ.Sc Ph.D - Non-Executive Director, Deputy Chairman and Board Risk Committee Chairman Catherine Woods - BA, Mod (Econ) - Non-Executive Director Jim O'Hara - Non-Executive Director Thomas Wacker - MBA (International Business & Finance) - Non-Executive Director Taoiseach – Enda Kenny T.D. Tánaiste – Eamon Gilmore Minister for Finance – Michael Noonan T.D.