AIB return to private ownership after government bailout

Allied Irish Banks (AIB), one of Ireland’s two major banks, has returned to full private ownership 15 years after it needed a government bailout.

The bank was effectively nationalised in 2010 during the Irish banking and property crisis.

On Tuesday, the government said it had sold its final 2% shareholding for just over €300m (£255m).

The bank’s chief executive, Colin Hunt, said it “owes an immense debt of gratitude to Irish taxpayers”.

Hunt added that AIB “profoundly regrets that the institution had to be rescued by the state almost two decades ago”.

Ireland’s banking sector almost collapsed in the 2000s when a property price crash was exacerbated by an international crisis which left the banks unable to find funding on global markets.

The Irish government controversially guaranteed the banks’ liabilities which later led to huge taxpayer-funded bailouts.

In 2021 the Irish government began selling down its then 71% shareholding in AIB.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the completion of that process was “an important milestone in delivering on the government’s policy of returning the banking sector to private ownership”.

Bank of Ireland returned to private ownership three years ago, but the state still has a majority stake in PTSB.

Donohoe said the state had made an effective profit of €600m (£511m)on its €29.4bn (£25m) bailouts of AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB.

However the collapse of two other institutions, Irish Nationwide Building Society and Anglo Irish Bank, cost taxpayers about €35bn (£29.8m)