All smiles as AIB settles with charity: The payment of €210,000 by AIB to a Kerry charity following a complaint about fees, as reported in the media this week, was interesting in that, despite the significant amount of money handed back by the bank, relations between it and the Kerry Parents & Friends of the Mentally Handicapped seemed cordial.

The bank said it had not charged any "unnotified fees" to the charity. The charity, in a statement, said the "allegations" printed in a report in the Sunday Independent were incorrect, without specifically referring to the fees issue which was at the heart of the story.

Current Account understands that fees totalling €210,000 were charged to the charity over a number of years, that the fees concerned were not mentioned in any letter of sanction between the bank and the charity, though they were mentioned in a booklet on fees given by the bank to the charity. The charity was very concerned when a check of its dealings with the bank, conducted by Belfast firm Acquiring Solutions, brought the existence of these fees to its attention for the first time.

It seems a complaint by the charity did not lead to instant capitulation by the bank and that the possibility of legal action being taken was mentioned, at least in passing. Public relations- wise, given the recent history of the bank, it was going to be a loser if there was any such development. It settled.

_________________________________________

Straight-talking chief gets ABB back on track

The once all-powerful Swedish conglomerate ABB has been been through the wars with its share price falling from around €50 to around €7. The company is now on course to make a profit following three years of losses approaching €2 billion.

ABB is focusing on two core divisions - power and automation technology (it had 27 businesses at one stage) - while selling off other parts and cutting jobs.

This is due in no small part to its straight-talking chief executive, president and chairman Mr Jürgen Dormann.

__________________________________________

IBM chairman sees cloud's silver lining

Speaking at an IBM conference for business leaders in Paris last week, he criticised the close relationship between the former chief executive and the then chairman.

When Mr Dormann took over, he faced liquidity problems (record debt), huge litigation over asbestos and huge internal costs. In 2001 the company made record losses of €700 million.

The former head of Hoechst also said he made several immediate changes. These included getting rid of the company jet and the executive dining room. He also promised to keep staff informed by letter about what was happening as he spearheaded radical restructuring.

"They didn't always appreciate what was in the letters," he said, but added that he had kept his word.

Mr Dormann said now that 94 per cent of the company share all the information about what is happening. It makes one wonder what kind of a future the other 6 per cent have.

The good times are back for technology if IBM's chairman and chief executive Sam Palmisano's predictions are to be believed.

He told the IBM conference in Paris last week that capital spending, including information technology, was growing and would increase by 6-7 per cent this year. He sees a similar outlook for next year as more companies invest in growth.

He said that, having coped with the dotcom crash, companies were having to cope with a whole new set of factors, including an over-zealous regulatory environment.

Mr Palmisano detailed how firms also had to cope with geopolitical uncertainties. On top of that, there was the threat of system attacks. He said IBM monitored networks for clients in 134 countries and in one month the number of attacks on systems had increased by 17 per cent.

When you take various factors into account, including the economy, oil and volatility, "you could say, 'what a lousy deal' or you could take the perspective that this is a phenomenal opportunity to drive a completely different design for our enterprises and our institutions and talk about what we can do next".

Not surprisingly, Mr Palmisano is in the latter camp.