Allied Irish Banks recently transferred ownership of Baltimore-based Allfirst to New York bank M&T in return for a 22.5% stake in M&T and $886m in cash, which it said it would use to buy back shares.

After the Allfirst losses, an internal AIB investigation concluded that poor management and financial controls had contributed to the crisis, and Allfirst Chairman, Frank Bramble, and Chief Executive, Susan Keating subsequently resigned, although AIB denied that this was as a result of the Rusnak losses.

In this week's trading statement, AIB said income was growing faster than costs, supported by strong loan growth in Ireland and the UK, with Irish mortgage sales set to rise by a quarter. The bank said that non-performing loans were not significantly increasing, and it expected overall provisions for the year to be broadly similar to 2001 at Euros 179m.

The bank said its Polish subsidiary would generate strong and sustainable earnings growth, and that provisions on its Polish loan book would be lower than last year.