AIB announced in the spring that as part of it’s restructuring and cost cutting exercise it was closing down it’s offshore operations – AIB International. The original target date for winding up of operations was the end of December 2013 – but things have moved faster than planned and by the end of this year, all its savers will have left .
All AIB International customers with variable-rate accounts have already been encouraged to close their accounts – and no interest has been paid on them since August .
Now AIB International has announced that with effect from December 3 it will be closing and repaying all remaining fixed-rate accounts, even if they have still a while to go to maturity.
Customers with fixed rate accounts will get the balance of their account plus the total amount of interest which would have been accrued and had been paid if the account had run for the full term.
Once an account has been closed, the money and interest will be paid into whatever nominated bank account AIB International holds for the customer.
Any remaining AIB International variable-rate account holders will also have their money automatically repaid to their nominated bank account with effect from December 3.
The withdrawal of AIB International from the offshore market leaves just two Irish-owned banks in that market – Permanent Bank International and Bank of Ireland (IOM).