An employee of AIB contacted the Central Bank of Ireland and the ECB in Frankfurt on Wednesday alleging that the bank misled regulators of its progress in dealing with a broad range of loans in arrears and by implication that profits may have been overstated as a result.
A spokesman for the Central Bank declined to comment on the issue this morning and AIB says that it’s not aware of these allegations being raised internally within the bank.
It’s understood the whistleblower, who contacted the banks via an anonymous email has worked in AIB’s Financial Solutions Group where hundreds of staff have been solely focussed in recent years on managing the bank’s bad debts.
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A new report from PwC estimates that leaving the EU will cost the UK between 70,000 and 100,000 jobs in financial services between now and 2020.
The research for TheCityUK found that the UK's financial sector will contract by almost 10% if it leaves.
PwC previously issued one of the starkest warnings to date concerning a Brexit - saying that if would cause a serious shock to the British economy, and that it could ultimately cost 950,000 jobs.
The official campaigning ahead of the EU referendum begins later with both sides bringing out their heavyweights for a day of speeches and rallies.
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At a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne said the agreement struck with Germany, France, Italy and Spain will, "lift the veil of secrecy" that criminals hide under to evade tax and commit other white-collar crimes.
It is hoped the new arrangement will allow investigations into financial wrongdoing to be performed more effectively - and he has called for other G20 members to follow their example and build upon the system of European co-operation.
He said: "Today we deal another hammer blow against those who hide their illegal tax evasion in the dark corners of the financial system.
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Microsoft is suing the U.S. government over a privacy row. The tech giant has mounted the legal challenge over the right to inform its customers when a federal agency is looking at their emails.
Microsoft says Washington is violating the American constitution - its legal papers read, "People do not give up their rights when they move their private information from physical storage to the cloud."
It continues to say that the US government "has exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations."
