Compiled by Laura Slattery

QUOTE of the WEEK

"Every day some bank comes out with a howler. Banks have destroyed their credibility to a very significant degree over the last six months."

AIB chief executive Eugene Sheehy longs for the pre-crunch era, when banks only came out with howlers - such as losing $691 million to a rogue trader - every other day.

THE NUMBERS

0

Number of foreclosure proceedings AIB is currently bringing against its mortgage customers - evidence that its loan underwriters deserve some kind of performance bonus, even if its subprime-backed securities traders don't.

30

Number of Millennium Domes that the £24 billion government bale-out of Northern Rock has cost British taxpayers "without the prospect of a decent pop concert at the end of it", according to Liberal Democrat Vince Cable.

GOOD WEEK

Cinemagoers

Slurping and munching through a pricey popcorn/soft drink combo might be the current cinema cuisine standard, but in San Francisco, Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas is trying something a little more salubrious. Its full menu includes roasted game hen ($17), braised lamb shank ($19) and chorizo and garbanzo beans in a garlic paprika broth ($13), while a balcony bar is open to adults who want to wash down their movie with alcohol.

Yahoo employees

In a fine example of how to look after your own, the internet company's valiant rearguard action against a predatory Microsoft has included the introduction of enhanced severance benefits for all full-time staff, in case employees are made redundant in the two years after the completion of any merger. Enhanced severance packages following a merger are common in the US, but are usually predictably restricted to top executives.

Lockheed Martin

The world's biggest defence contractor (and keen investor in the recently privatised US army healthcare system) has expanded its global bootprint by winning its debut order from India, signing a €678 million deal to provide it with six Super Hercules military transport aircraft. Western defence firms are now battling to win an €8 billion contract to sell 126 fighter jets to India, which is trading up from its Soviet-era weaponry.

BAD WEEK

Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs)

In further evidence that some financial services professionals are just plucking numbers out of their acronym-addled minds, Credit Suisse has suspended a "handful" of London-based traders suspected of "delinquent" overpricing of asset-backed securities known as synthetic CDOs. The asset providing such sturdy backing to these securities? Subprime mortgages.

Bookmakers

The UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport has asked the Gambling Commission to look at ways of cutting the risks of high losses on "fixed odds betting terminals" (slot machines). A fast-growing source of income for high street betting shops in the UK, the terminals account for 20 per cent of Ladbrokes' total winnings, but government opposition means they are unlikely to be popping up in bookies here.

Cadbury Schweppes shareholders

Apparently people invest in Cadbury for more than just free Flakes at the agms. Investors in the chocolate maker have been left with a bitter taste in their mouths after Cadbury said it would break its promise to award cash handouts when it demerges from soft drinks business Dr Pepper Snapple Group. The share price for the FTSE 100-listed confectioner duly melted.