Senior AIB management and the governor of the Central Bank, Mr John Hurley, are to be called before an Oireachtas committee to discuss the foreign exchange overcharging at AIB.

Mr Seán Fleming, chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, said he wanted the bank's leadership to explain why there seemed to be a "certain culture" operating at the bank.

Leading members of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (IFSRA) are also being called to the hearings which begin next Thursday.

Mr Fleming told a meeting of the committee yesterday that a long list of scandals had taken place at the bank.

He said it appeared no lessons had been learned by the bank's executives from episodes like bogus non-resident accounts, Allfirst and the collapse of ICI. He said these events arose from a "particular culture" at AIB.

He said he felt some sympathy with the 30,000 front-line staff at the bank who were getting abuse from members of the public because of the overcharging. "This incident represents a cultural issue," he said.

The decision to call in AIB, IFSRA and the Central Bank governor was taken after the Labour Party's finance spokeswoman, Mr Joan Burton, wrote to the committee. She told the meeting that IFSRA was a "watchdog with no teeth".

She said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, also needed to be called before the committee to discuss what he planned to put into future legislation governing IFSRA.

In a press statement, Ms Burton said: "The whole issue of financial regulation has been on the political agenda since 1998 and, even now, six years on, this Government has yet to finalise the passage of the full regulation package."

Mr Richard Bruton, Fine Gael finance spokesman told the meeting the banking sector seemed to be "extremely hostile" to the consumer.

He said this was a product of a "turf war" over who should regulate the banks. He said there were "red faces" not only at AIB, but also in Government.

He said the Government should be embarrassed because its regulatory regime failed to uncover the overcharging. He said regulators needed to be given more authority.

The comments were strongly challenged by Fianna Fail TD, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, who said the AIB was a major contributor to Irish society and employed 30,000 people. He said there was a danger in imposing too much regulation on the financial sector.