A NUMBER of $100 dollar bills sold by Allied Irish Bank in Dublin, one of which was said to be a forgery, have been certified as authentic by the US authorities.
An AIB spokesman said last night the notes had been authenticated by the US Secret Service at the World Trade Centre. The bank had submitted the notes for inspection, as required by law, he said, and tests had proved they were not ,forgeries.
Normally, the procedure takes two to three weeks, according to,, AIB but, given the public interest in the matter, the process was expedited.
The case arose when an Irish customer, Mr John O'Callaghan, bought $100 bills in the St Stephen's Green branch of AIB in Dublin before a recent trip to the US. When he tried to pay for goods using one of the bills, the shop assistant refused to accept it, saying the note was a forgery.
The AIB spokesman said last night the bank was still reviewing all its procedures for screening foreign currencies, both through technology and staff training.
That the incident should have arisen in the first place and that the customer should be placed in such a situation was a matter of grave concern to the bank, he said.
He said the issue of whether such a situation could recur was a matter the bank was looking into. People who wished to buy foreign currencies from the bank needed to be reassured, he said.
There was also a question of how the New York branch of AIB handled the matter when contacted by the customer, Mr O'Callaghan, when he brought the suspect notes to staff there. The spokesman said this was an issue which still required "clarification".
Mr O'Callaghan, a tax appeals commissioner, could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
Banking sources say there is a problem regarding dollar forgeries. The dollar is the most commonly traded international currency and it has been claimed that some Middle Eastern countries are Printing very high quality forgeries.
The US government is introducing a new $100 bill to try to foil counterfeiters. "Clearly there are serious problems with $100 bill forgeries in the US and this incident involving Mr O'Callaghan may have arisen on the back of this," said one source.
It is understood AIB will be considering whether it should give out bills in smaller denominations.
