I have been informed by the Central Bank that Allied Irish Banks plc holds a banking licence under Section 9 of the Central Bank Act, 1971. This licence allows the bank to conduct banking business. As defined in the Act, “banking business” means business which consists of—
(a) the business of accepting deposits payable on demand or on notice or at a fixed or determinable future date, but excluding deposits with a trader from persons employed by him in his trading business or from his customers in the normal course of his trading business and deposits or instalments in respect of the letting or selling of goods under a hire-purchase agreement or a credit-sale agreement, or
(b) the business aforesaid and any other business normally carried on by a bank.