C.50,000 AIB customers have availed of payment breaks on loan principal and interest, according to the bank.

AIB says that at the end of the payment break, impacted customers will have an option to extend the term of the loan with associated repayments or maintain original repayment profile with increased repayments to reflect the accrued principal and interest.

The bank revealed that mortgage breaks have been availed of by 20,000 customer accounts, relating to total loans values of €2,670m. Moratoria on personal loans have been sanctioned for 18,700 accounts, with a total value of €200m.

As of May 7, 13,830 micro and small SME customers of the bank have availed of deferred payment arrangements, relating to €550m of finance (average of c.€40,000). Among larger SMEs, c.500 have requested a payment moratorium with total value of modifications of c.€1bn.

Requests in the Corporate and Real Estate Finance segment vary from payment moratorium to covenant resets and some requests for new working capital facilities, with lending of c.€2.6bn up for discussion.

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In the UK, the bank says it has put in place over 5,000 modifications for retail, business and corporate customers with a value of €1.5bn, with c.80% related to payment breaks.

CEO Colin Hunt (pictured) commented: “Critical to our ability to support individuals and businesses through the crisis is AIB’s robust capital and liquidity position and the strength of our business model.

“We delivered a solid underlying operational performance in Q1 and whilst 2020 will be an uncertain and difficult year, we will retain our relentless focus on our customers and are confident we can generate value to shareholders over the medium term.”

In its Q1 statement, the bank reports that customers are spending 28% less overall, though grocery spending in April was 40% higher than January. Online spending by customers has increased 120% for groceries, 70% for electrical goods, 56% for clothing and 43% for takeaways.