Michael Murray: The pillar banks are struggling for core earnings growth

AIB is powering ahead on technology, while speculation is mounting over Richie Boucher’s successor at BoI

The results last week from both AIB and Bank of Ireland were consistent on several fronts. Key core earnings failed to gain material traction (in Bank of Ireland’s case, they fell) – even though some elements of headline earnings improved, mainly due to a continued boost to write-backs of bad debt provisions on the banks’ legacy distressed loan portfolios.

While AIB’s distressed asset portfolio was much larger than Bank of Ireland’s and hence ...