The headlines just seem to get worse and worse for the taxpayer-owned bank. The latest lurid story involves an alleged €2bn, Mafia money-laundering scheme. Read the full story

The state’s biggest retail bank, AIB, operated special units to advance huge loans to property developers independently of its branch network, The Sunday Tribune reports. Read the full story

The pin-up of many a middle-aged male fantasy, Johnny Ronan, is reportedly fleeing the country for a few months in a bid to take the heat off his ailing business, Treasury Holdings.

Ronan, 55, has been in the full glare of the headlines since his ex-girlfriend and high-profile model Glenda Gilson went ape about a boozy weekend trip on board his private jet to Morocco in the company of former Miss World Rosanna Davison.

According to The Sunday Independent, the colourful Ronan sat down last week with top PR firm Murray Consultants and he heeded their (probably very expensive) advice to ‘get out of Dodge’.

Gossip columns aside, Ronan is facing far bigger headaches. Billions of euro owed by Treasury will be among the first destined for Nama and the company is deeply embroiled in the Dublin docklands, on which a scathing government report is due shortly.

The company can’t afford any distractions while it is seeking fresh funding from its bankers.

It has also emerged a Treasury subsidiary owes its parent almost €400m. The Sunday Business Post reports accounts recently filed by the Spencer Dock Development Company include a note by directors to the effect the financial crisis was “creating difficulty in extending our banking facilities beyond 2010 and 2011”.

Perhaps Gilson’s comments to the Sindo about her relationship with Ronan could become a metaphor for the nation’s soured dalliance with big developers.

“I had the time of my life with Johnny at the start … after that, no”.

Pressure is mounting on AIB boss Colm Doherty in the wake of last year’s €2.65bn pre-tax loss, with most of the Sunday newspapers taking a cut at the performance of the bank and its dismal prospects.

The Sunday Independent’s business section quotes the findings of an international research firm, Credit Sights, who believe next year’s losses could top €3bn and senior analyst Simon Adamson’s view that AIB’s loan book is “the worst in Europe”.

“From my experience, you have to go back to the Nordic banking crisis of the 1990s to see comparable levels of impaired loans in a big bank as you see in AIB today,” he says.

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Anglo Irish Bank wants to draw a line under its past when its annual results are published next month, according to a front page article in The Sunday Times. You can readily see why. The nationalised bank is the functioning definition of a basket case. Anglo is about to announce the largest loss in Irish corporate history when it writes off €11.2 billion on loans that it will transfer to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). Read the full story

During the debate over the banking crisis, the Government resolutely refused to go down the road of nationalising any of the major financial institutions but when the financial markets open tomorrow (Monday), the State will be the biggest shareholder in the Bank of Ireland.

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In order to sell Nama to its membership last year, the Green Party came up with a plan to establish an expert group that would help people struggling with personal or mortgage debt. The intention was that the group would issue recommendations on measures to assist people in debt arrears within a matter of months. The plan, which the Green leadership dubbed  “My Nama”, was included in the revised Programme for Government and it looks as if it is now about to get the green light.

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Bank of Ireland is finalising plans to launch a €1bn-plus rights issue within six to eight weeks – the first time an Irish bank has tried to raise funding in global capital markets since the onset of the credit crunch, The Sunday Times says.

The transfer of the bank’s first batch of property loans to Nama and European Commission approval of its business plan will determine the timing of the rights issue.

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