“The Financial Regulator published a detailed report in December 2004 into foreign exchange and other charging issues at AIB following a full investigation into these matters. In that report it is stated clearly that the Financial Regulator became aware of these matters in April of 2004.

“Any allegations, such as those made at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Economic Regulatory Affairs today, that the Financial Regulator would have withheld information relevant to its 2004 Report are completely without foundation.

“Entirely separate and unrelated instances of overcharging by AIB to those covered in the 2004 Report were reported to and known to the Central Bank (the then banking regulator) in 2001. These matters were examined and AIB were instructed to report to the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs (ODCA), which was the relevant competent authority for issues relating to bank charges at that time. AIB’s internal audit function informed the Central Bank at the end of 2002 that all necessary repayments had been made to customers.

The Financial Regulator is writing to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on these matters.”

Statement from AIB:

“The issues referred to by Mr McErlean were fully reported by AIB to the relevant regulatory authorities at the time, and were fully investigated and fully addressed.”