ACC Loan Management

1927

The Agricultural Credit Corporation was founded in September 1927 and was one of the first creations of the Irish Free State.

1988

A new Agricultural Credit Act empowered the corporation to deploy up to 25% of its risk assets outside agriculture and the foundations of present-day ACCBank were laid.

2000

ACCBank refocused its business model on the SME and Agri sectors positioning the bank as a relationship bank in these sectors.

2002

ACCBank became a wholly owned subsidiary of Rabobank.[1] With the backing of its parent, ACCBank embarking on ambitious plans to strengthen and grow its presence in Ireland as a leading Business and Agri-business bank. Now, as part of the Netherlands-based, former AAA rated, Rabobank Group, ACCBank’s range of products and services includes commercial mortgages, working capital finance, asset finance and leasing and wealth management.

2014 - ACCBank Restructuring, ceases banking, debt recovery focus

ACCBank decided to restructure with a focus solely on debt recovery, and stopped delivering banking services on Friday 30 May 2014. This meant that the closure of current accounts and return of all deposits, including interest due.[2] All Business Centres in Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Mullingar, Sligo and Waterford closed to the public and the management of loan facilities was centralised instead of being dealt with the local business centres.

ACCBank ceases to be a bank mid 2014 returning its banking licence but will continue to manage its loan portfolio. After ACCBank has returned its banking licence, it will be regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, but with an alternative status and not as a bank.[3]

Commenting on the changes, country manager Kevin Knightly for parent Rabobank found losses incurred by ACC Bank Plc because of the property crisis, a position emerging of its costs exceeding income during 2014 and that position was unsustainable for its parent, requiring immediate action to stem loses. The bank has been reporting losses since 2007.

ACC has explored the possibility of outsourcing a portion of its loan book, in the region of 10%, excluding agricultural loans and selected Capita as the preferred service provider who have 1,000 staff in Ireland.

ACC has 5,000 deposit customers totaling €110 million. Overdrafts on current accounts amount to almost €75m.

The parent company, Rabobank Group, has provided capital support of €1.3 billion to ACC since 2008 with over €2.1 billion of the loan book written down since 2008.[4]

SIPTU and UNITE trade unions wanted the Government to take ACC Bank back into State ownership and were looking for a meeting with the Minister for Finance in an attempt to seek to save jobs. They referred to the inclusion of a State investment bank in the Programme for Government. There was some redeployment opportunities to Rabobank but no new business was being generated for some time with the bank's staff focused on debt recovery. [5]

2018-19: Sale of loans In December 2018, ACCLM transferred the ownership of outstanding loans to the Dutch parent company, which sold the portfolios the following year.[6]

The remaining assets and liabilities of ACCLM, mainly consisting of dormant or unclaimed accounts, were transferred to ACC Investments Limited.[7] ACCIL still operates from a small office in the International Financial Services Centre with a skeleton staff.

• List of Irish companies
• Agricultural Mortgage Corporation

• Official site
• Documents and clippings about ACC Loan Management in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW