AIB HAS SENT more than 30 letters to its former senior executives asking them to take a voluntary reduction in their pension levels.

Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan told Deputy Michael McGrath this when asked by him about the total number of requests the board of AIB made for former directors to surrender part of their pension voluntarily.

Noonan said that he has  been informed by AIB that the bank has sent out in excess of 30 letters to the former senior executives, requesting a voluntary reduction in their pension levels.

He said that:

As AIB indicated when before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform quite a few responses have been received and the process remains ongoing.

However, for “reasons of confidentiality”, AIB cannot say which executives agreed to pension cuts, or what level of cut was agreed on.

In 2012, it emerged that the Chief Executive of AIB had written to the bank’s former senior executives asking them to consider waiving some of their pension entitlements.

That news came a week after it was made public that AIB had used €1.1 billion of its pension scheme – funded by the taxpayer – to maintain the pensions of its former executives who earn up to €500k a year.

Read: AIB chief executive asks senior executives to give up pensions>