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Irish Minister for Finance approves acquisition of EBS Building Society by Allied Irish Banks

On 28th June 2011, the Irish Department of Finance announced that the Minister for Finance has approved the proposed acquisition of EBS Building Society (EBS) by Allied Irish Banks plc (AIB). Both institutions are substantially owned by the Irish State.

Under the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Act 2008 (CIFS) the merger was notified to the Minister, who found that the transaction would not substantially lessen competition in the Irish banking market. This decision was made on the basis that there was no realistic counterfactual to the merger in which competition from EBS would be preserved.

A CRA team including Cristina Caffarra, Ian Small, Kyla Malcolm, and Jenny Haydock acted as the "competition advisor" under the terms of the CIFS Act, producing a competition assessment of the proposed acquisition for the Minister's consideration.

This role followed CRA's previous work in 2009-10 advising the Irish Department of Finance in relation to the notification to the European Commission of restructuring plans for various Irish financial institutions following their receipt of State aid. Prior to this, CRA advised the Department on the notification of the bank guarantees scheme under State aid rules.

The Department of Finance press release is available here.

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