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Matt Cooper: Little sympathy for blundering AIB after major tactical error

AIB has long had a reputation for corporate arrogance and in its focus on maximising profits, it seems it did not consider the social ramifications of the cashless plan

AIB is majority state-owned and should not have tried to move ahead with the announcement that it was removing cash services from 70 of its branches unless it had received formal approval from the government. Picture: Bloomberg

The jig was up for AIB’s plan to reduce services for many of its customers as soon as Micheál Martin spoke about it as he touched down in Singapore on Thursday afternoon.

For the Taoiseach to have announced that he intended to summon AIB to a meeting in Dublin on his return, and to have publicly stated that he wanted the bank to “reflect” and “reconsider” on its intentions, was as good as him making ...