AIB has begun legal action against former senior executives at its international outsourcing business, saying they stole trade secrets in a bid to set up a rival business.

AIB has agreed to sell its International Financial Services (IFS) subsidiary to Capita Group. A lawyer for AIB, Michael McDowell, told Ireland's High Court that the actions of the executives had caused Capita to cut its offer from €55 million to €33 million.

Mr McDowell said the value of AIB IFS is "effectively haemorrhaging" as a result and the deal with Capita was also in danger.

Justice Barry White granted an order requiring the defendants to preserve all document and electronically stored information relating to the case.

Mr McDowell said the executives took part in a "covert plan" to poach staff and clients of AIB IFS for a new competing business. He said Centralis, a financial services company based in Luxembourg, was also involved in the plan.

"In essence what appears to have occurred is that the personal defendants have in concert with the corporate defendants, secretly and systematically colluded in the preparation and execution of a premeditated strategy to undermine and damage the AIB IFS Business for their own gain," AIB head of corporate and Commercial banking Ronan O Neill said in an affidavit.

The matter will be heard by the High Court on September 20th.

There were no representiatives of Centralis or the six executives at the hearing. Centralis did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

A former stock market darling with international ambitions, AIB was effectively nationalised and saved from collapse by emergency European Central Bank (ECB) funding after being shut out of debt markets and losing billion of euros in deposits.

The bank is currently trying to shrink its net loans base and spin off non-core assets.

Reuters