AIB’s “Build a Bailed-Out Bank Challenge”
September 3, 2009 by Joe Fogarty
Unabashed by its toxic debts, beleaguered shareholders and allegations of gross mismanagement, AIB persists in approaching Irish secondary schools to teach students “money-management” and “key business skills”.
The Campaign for Commercial-Free Education previously identified Allied Irish Bank’s Build a Bank Challenge as one of the biggest sponsored competitions in Ireland at the secondary level. Once again, in 2008/2009, students were interviewed by bank staff for positions as “Branch manager” and “Sales and Marketing Executive” in the school branch of the bank, sought out new account holders for AIB among their peers and took on “responsibility for providing ongoing customer service for their customers and keeping accurate financial records.” This year’s Build a Bank Challenge stood out in high relief as the bank saw its share price drop 91% in twelve months, it’s chief executive and chairman resign and the company survive only through a state guarantee and a €3.5 billion government recapitalization plan.
The scheme continues to have a high profile among many secondary schools who are keen to emulate he 2008 winners who based their bank around a jungle theme; “This included the bank staff members getting dressed up as jungle animals for the launch day, regular ‘jungle themed’ newsletters sent to customers along with plenty of goodies and freebies for customers who were regular savers.”
