AIB has launched its Social Impact Report for 2024-2025. The document captures what the bank is doing to help make a difference to communities and to the lives of its customers and colleagues, as well as to climate and nature.
The report blends metrics with real-life stories from customers and colleagues and is a snapshot of the transformation in renewable energy, business innovation, rural regeneration, housing responses, financial welfare and nature restoration that AIB is financing and supporting through its “greening our business” strategic focus.
“Greening our business is a business priority for AIB, and sustainability is at the heart of everything we do,” says AIB chief strategy and sustainability officer Mary Whitelaw. The bank has issued more green finance than any other bank in Ireland. Results for 2025 to date show that 36 per cent of the bank’s total new lending is for green and transition finance. The ambition is that, by 2030, that figure will be 70 per cent.
Recent research carried out by AIB’s sustainability unit shows that people want governments as well as organisations such as AIB to help protect them from the impacts of climate change, Whitelaw says.
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“Financial institutions like AIB have a pivotal role to play in helping to shape a more sustainable future,” she says. “Governments cannot make the transition alone. Financial institutions can support the realisation of national emission reduction targets and climate actions.”
Whitelaw stresses that the new Impact Report is much more than a report on the bank’s sustainability record. It is as much an assessment of the impact it is having on social progress, hence its title.
“Sustainability will only work if it means a better way of doing things. We see sustainability action and social progress as two sides of the one coin,” she says.
“What we’re financing and supporting is social progress in action – funding greater access to clean energy, warmer homes, thriving local businesses, better schools and healthcare settings, viable agriculture and more public transport. It also means ensuring that we prioritise the needs of all of our customers and our colleagues, particularly when it comes to financial wellbeing and protecting people against financial fraud.”
The report also spotlights the bank’s many community activities including its 34-year support for the GAA at club and county championship level, its €1 million Community Fund, which provides funding to charities and voluntary organisations across the country and its long-standing support for the Goal Mile.
Among the many standout stories contained in the report is a look at Coolanowle Organic Farm, a family-run business in Co Carlow that received sustainability-linked financing from AIB to expand its regenerative agriculture practices. The farm’s success illustrates how targeted financial support can help rural enterprises scale up while protecting biodiversity and soil health.
Not too far away in Co Laois, Brophy Timber Services, owned by Damien Brophy, received an AIB green loan to acquire 30 acres of forestry land, following on from a previous loan for 126 hectares for tree planting. Brophy believes that, with the right support, forestry in Ireland has huge potential and could be what he calls our “green gold” just as it is in Scandinavia.
A key issue highlighted throughout the report is AIB’s role as a trusted mortgage and housing partner. Nearly 60 per cent of AIB mortgages are now green mortgages, helping thousands of families live in warmer, more energy-efficient homes. The bank is also contributing to the State’s social and affordable housing commitments. In 2024, the bank provided €135 million in lending for social and affordable housing in the Republic of Ireland and £112 million in the UK.
The Social Impact Report also spotlights how the bank is reaching out to more vulnerable customers. The Tuam Road branch in Galway, for example, connected with Galway Simon during a branch awareness day. Branch staff learned about the particular challenges that people moving beyond homelessness can face in accessing financial services. This led to a unique bespoke banking workshop which covered banking and managing money for a group that had never been supported by a bank before.
With 170 branches, AIB has Ireland’s largest local network, welcoming more than 11 million branch visits in 2024 alone. The bank is investing €40 million by the end of 2025 in upgrading its branches and ATMs, ensuring environments where all customers are comfortable discussing their finances. In March 2025, AIB became the first Irish bank to receive autism-friendly accreditation from AsIam in every branch.
“It’s just a snapshot of what we’re doing,” Whitelaw says. “But it gives a sense of the breadth of work taking place every day to support communities and empower people to build a more sustainable future themselves.”
