AIB has refused to be drawn further on reports that a plan to centralise its group treasury operations in Dublin had been in place for at least a year before the $750 million (€854 million) fraud involving currency dealer Mr John Rusnak emerged.

The bank said it would not make any statements on the affair until the US banker, Mr Eugene Ludwig, completed his inquiry into the fraud at Allfirst next month.

An AIB spokeswoman refused to discuss which of its executives had been working on the reorganisation of its treasury operations or why the plan had not been implemented.

Last Thursday, AIB's board of directors decided that all treasury functions should be controlled from AIB Capital Markets Division in Dublin. These activities, which include treasury deals by Allfirst and its banking operations in Poland, will be overseen by Mr Nick Treble who will report to AIB Capital Markets' managing director, Mr Colm Doherty.

This week Mr Buckley indicated that this had been planned for over the past year and was accelerated as a result of the fraud.

Mr Buckley is a former managing director of AIB Capital Markets and is likely to have had some views on the running of the group's treasury operations when he took over as chief executive last July. It is likely that executives such as Mr Doherty and AIB group treasurer, Mr Pat Ryan, would have had a major input into any such reorganisation.

Mr Doherty has long experience of this aspect of AIB's business and was a member of its management team under Mr Buckley. He later succeeded Mr Buckley in that position. Mr Ryan is in Baltimore helping the bank to complete its inquiry into what happened.

Investors and regulators will be anxious to know why the bank failed to tighten up its treasury operations earlier and will be looking for explanations in Mr Ludwig's report.

The scale of the fraud has focused attention on the bank's management team and its capacity to manage a business with international subsidiaries. It has also left the bank vulnerable to a possible takeover.

In a report on AIB yesterday, NCB Stockbrokers called for management changes, an orderly exit from the US and the return of surplus capital to shareholders as the best means to avert a takeover.

NCB suggests that in a takeover situation, the bank is worth more than €16 a share. AIB shares closed at €12.17 in Dublin yesterday, up 22 cents.