‘We got it wrong’: AIB chief says bank will not revisit cashless plans
Vivienne Clarke
The chief executive of AIB has confirmed the bank will not revisit controversial plans to make 70 of its branches cashless.
Colin Hunt added that the bank’s 170 branches will remain as they are for as long as he is chief executive.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Hunt said he was not in the business of trying to spread blame or dodge responsibility. “We got it wrong.”
“This was a proposal that the bank had developed and we made a mistake, we had very strong negative feedback from our customers, they contacted us through email, through mail, by telephones, in branches, made it clear that they did not want this to happen," he said.
“We heard the feedback, we listened to it, we acted on it, we reversed that plan, we've withdrawn that proposal, it's off the agenda and branch services will continue as they exist today.”
When asked about a comment from Minister of State Sean Fleming that the Department of Finance had been “blindsided” by AIB’s proposal, Mr Hunt said AIB was a publicly listed company and all communications with shareholders were governed by various rules.
“We have formal arrangements for engagement with the Department of Finance and we complied with that," he said.
“I'm not in the business today of trying to spread blame or dodge responsibility - this was the bank's proposal which we announced, we gave a lot of thought to the initial proposal which was all about seeking to future-proof our branch network.”
