BoI’s €9.5 billion Achilles heel

Up until May 2004, when its then chief executive Mike Soden resigned, Bank of Ireland’s single largest loan loss in its then 221-year history was €25 million.

Bank of Ireland

The PwC report reveals that by November 2008, the bank feared it would break that record at least four times with individual borrowers in its global property book alone.

Under its then chief executive Brian Goggin, Bank of Ireland had pursued Anglo, AIB and Irish Nationwide by taking on ever bigger risks in its global property book.

The PwC report reveals how this so-called global property book, which had by then loaned €9.5 ...