THE country's most notorious bank wants to hire consultants to teach its staff how to spot bogus financial transactions and other dodgy dealings.

Anglo Irish Bank issued a statement last week asking companies to tender to provide e-learning courses for staff to get them up to speed on suspect transactions.

The "request for proposal" was issued so that suppliers could provide tutelage in "anti-money laundering and data protection".

The document said: "Founded in 1964, Anglo provides bespoke business lending, wealth management, personal deposit and corporate treasury services to well-defined target services.

"Anglo has offices in Ireland, UK, Isle of Man, Jersey, Austria, Germany and USA... [we employ] 1,300 staff throughout the world."

The course will be provided to 950 members of staff with all employees expected to complete an examination on the legislation.

The bank said: "Each course and test must be taken and passed by all employees in Ireland on an annual basis.

"The Anglo Compliance Department will monitor the completion of the training and will follow up with employees directly... until such time as they have completed the courses and passed the tests."

The bank said it was required by law to provide training to staff on both anti-money laundering and data protection legislation. Under the act, staff and management are required to notify all suspicious transactions to the gardaí and to the Revenue Commissioners.

Specific procedures are also supposed to be put in place to ensure no untoward business in terms of banking, money laundering or terrorist financing.

A strict set of criteria has also been put in place to ensure only the most reputable of firms are allowed to tender for business with the bank.