The news of AIB's huge losses through rogue trading has made headlines throughout Europe and the United States, particularly in the financial press."Irish Bank Says a US Trader Lost $750 Million" proclaimed the print edition of the Journal, Wall Street's bible.

Beside the story was a rogues' gallery depiction of the history of men who have bilked various banks since 1989, including Nick Leeson, the trader who brought down Barings in Britain in 1995.

"The disclosure severely dents AIB's reputation for risk management," noted the paper.

Handelsblatt, Germany's leading financial daily, described the fraud as the biggest scandal of its kind since the Leeson case.

The paper reported AIB's assurance that the bank's survival was not at risk but said that the case highlighted the need for tougher internal controls in banks.

In Britain, the broadsheets carried the story on their front pages with the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian carrying it as their lead story.

The Financial Times said a "manhunt" was under way in the US for the "rogue" foreign exchange dealer suspected of a $750 million fraud which threatened the independence of Ireland's largest bank.

It also reported Mr John Rusnak's lawyer, Mr David Irwin, as saying his client was not a fugitive and was somewhere in Maryland.

The Lex column raised the question of AIB's ability to control its overseas operations and the bank's vulnerability to a takeover.

An inside piece in the Guardian also concentrated on this point.

The revelation of the massive loss left AIB "battling to restore its reputation and retain its long term independence", the piece read.

Possible purchasers mentioned were Royal Bank of Scotland and Abbey National.

The London Times, in its coverage, also mentioned Royal Bank of Scotland as a possible purchaser. In another piece the Guardian said the head of the bank's chief executive, Mr Michael Buckley, "is most definitely on the block". It also said that AIB, in a strategic and management sense, "will now in all likelihood be torn to shreds".

The Daily Telegraph carried the story on pages one, two and three and on its business page at the back of the paper.

In its City Comment column on that page the paper reported AIB's directors as saying the fraud was a highly sophisticated one. "Translated from the Gaelic it comes out as: We don't have a clue what happened either."

The New York Times, in a story on its business pages, dispatched two reporters to the Baltimore, Maryland home of John Rusnak, the accused currency trader.

Perhaps more than other media, it blamed the $750 million squarely on Mr Rusnak, while concluding that he did not personally gain from the scandal, but instead made a serious currency miscalculation.

In France, Le Monde said that, following the collapse of Enron, the fraud at AIB will fuel concerns about the culture of capitalism in the United States.

"The swindle again illustrates the serious cultural differences between careful commercial bankers and adventurous traders who play solo to inflate their Christmas bonus.

"And the sophisticated financial instruments that offer protection from exchange rate fluctuations encourage a taste for danger. Because when enormous sums are lost somewhere, it should never be forgotten that somebody elsewhere has just made a fortune," the paper said.

In Belgium, Le Soir bracketed AIB's troubles with the Enron collapse and the difficulties faced by Elan.

The paper suggested that all three cases were symptoms of the hangover that has followed the exuberance of the boom years.

"One seriously starts to wonder whether all these accidents are not caused by a single element: the aggressive growth which prevailed at the most beautiful hours of the new economy," the paper said.

In Switzerland, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung said the case highlighted the enormous risks surrounding currency transactions, despite safeguards put in place following the Leeson case. The paper asked why Mr Rusnak succeeded in building up such big positions over such a long period, without setting off the bank's warning light.

"The events underscore once again that banks have an open flank when currency traders, who often develop extraordinarily complex trading packages involving very high sums, are not adequately supervised," the paper said.