DEBT FORGIVENESS: LETS GET ON WITH IT. . . . . .

Once again amazing times in the Republic of Ireland for Allied Irish Bank and First Trust. It is good news to see that the Bank is in on target to be investible in early 2015 as said by their Chief Executive Mr Duffy and that their losses from 2013 have halved. Once again the platform of AIB is to be good as the Bank is returning to an operating profit.

More interestingly for borrowers in Northern Ireland the Bank, AIB or First Trust are seeking to write of £3.5 Billion of bailout loans. Yes I will say that again £3.5 Billion.

Obviously this will accelerate the solvency of the Bank and no doubt put them on a sound platform moving forward. My question in this situation is always, why are AIB not seeking to write of smaller loans for borrowers including mortgage holders and SME's who have an exposure to the property sector and is hindering them from becoming more productive and revenue generators in our economy? Perhaps Mr Duffy would like to explain.

 We raise this point at this time simply because borrowers are becoming even more disillusioned with the responses they are receiving from our native Bankers in Ireland and the United Kingdom and their demands for settlements of guarantees or borrowings as a consequence of the crash that the Banks fuelled to such an exorbitant and stratospheric level. We would strongly urge all the institutions to be more pragmatic in their approach to bad loans and we would certainly suggest that "what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" so if AIB are entitled to bailout write offs then why not the borrowers?

GDP are pleased to announce that they have achieved write downs to date but the Banks should come out in a public way now and say they are open to do business based on their ability to write down and/or write of loans as has been disclosed yesterday by AIB.

Can you imagine the reaction if the AIB Executives had of looked for bonuses for their performance over this last year. Then there would have been an outcry!

James Gibbons LLB