Irish banks have a litany of scandals behind them from their relentless drive to become the most profitable in Europe as the Irish economy boomed. They achieved that objective in 2006, but customers paid the price. Now, as the banks' market capitalisations collapse and the spectre of life on the dole looms, senior bankers may find little sympathy from the public.

Dirt/Non-resident accounts:

In the 1990s, the Dirt and bogus non-resident accounts scandal broke and eventually became
the largest fraud ever perpetrated on the state. The Revenue Commissioners collected nearly €860m from depositors who owed back tax and from the banks themselves.

John Rusnak

In 2002, rogue trader John Rusnak lost $691m through foreign exchange trading at Allfirst Bank, which AIB then owned.

ISTC

Only this year International Securities Trading Corporation (ISTC) became the largest casualty heretofore of the global financial crisis when investors and banks were forced to write off more than €820m in loans in equity. Nearly 30 complaints were made to the Financial Services Ombudsman in relation to it.

Overcharging of customers

Overcharging customers became almost comically common amongst many of the banks. The level of overcharging was such that between May 2004 and July 2006, consumers were repaid €118m by 36 financial service providers that overcharged them.

Last year, Ulster Bank had to refund €4.2m to customers it overcharged in relation to payment protection policies and then had to repay nearly €1m on student accounts. It wasn't the first bank to be involved in this as in 2005 Bank of Ireland had to pay back €18m in charges and interest.

National Irish Bank paid back €11m for improper charges; it had already been the centre of controversy when inspectors found "clear findings of misconduct" from 1988 to 1998 against the bank and how it assisted customers in evading tax.

AIB repaid €34m in 2006 for foreign-exchange overcharging having continued to do so after staff first became aware of the problem. AIB also had to pay back pensioners for overcharging their bank accounts since 2000, despite the fact that the previous September chief executive Eugene Sheehy had claimed a "thorough and wide-ranging" investigation into overcharging had been completed.

Amazingly, last year the Financial Regulator refused to provide details of overcharging by individual banks even though its own consumer panel requested the information, saying it was "virtually incredible" the issue wasn't being immediately addressed.

The regulator decided instead that the matter was closed until its consumer protection code was reviewed this year.

Faldor

Some senior AIB management also had to pay out after it was found that a number of executives had an investment account with AIB Investment Managers in the early 1990s via Faldor, a company in the British Virgin Islands.

Four of them later made tax settlements with the Revenue Commissioners.