AIB will consider “over the course of the next number of weeks” its response to the latest increase in the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) official interest rates, the lender’s chief executive Colin Hunt told the Oireachtas Finance Committee on Wednesday.
He said it would be “inappropriate” for the bank to give notice in advance of any decision.
The ECB’s governing council decided last week to increase its main rates by 0.75 of a percentage point, following on from a 0.5 point move in late July, as the central bank seeks to rein in soaring inflation.
The three continuing retail banks in the State decided not to increase their standard variable and new fixed mortgage rates following the initial July move.
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Mr Hunt also reiterated AIB’s regret in announcing a plan in July to make 70 of its 170 branches cashless, which was abandoned within days, amid political and public uproar over the proposal.
“We terminated the plan within three days of its publication but today I again acknowledge the alarm it caused and reiterate our regret,” he said. “I heard our customers loud and clear. I heard it with a volume I’d never heard before.”
“The lesson in this is that you can’t get too far ahead of your customers. That is the big lesson from that experience back in July.”
He said, however, that there was “no shortage of analysis” and data that backed up the original plan, amid an ongoing decline in branch transactions that was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
