Allied Irish Bank

Name

Allied Irish Banks is usually referred to, both inside and outside the company, simply as AIB and often by its trade name of "Allied Irish Bank" (singular). In Northern Ireland, the bank traded as First Trust Bank until November 2019, while in Great Britain, it is called "Allied Irish Bank (GB)"—the only part of the operation where the full name, in the singular, is still in day-to-day use. Initially, the bank operated under the names of its former constituent companies, alongside a new AIB logo, a circle divided in three with an "A" at the centre. From 1970, these were replaced by "Allied Irish Banks". In 1990, AIB introduced a new logo (prompted, it was said in some quarters, by the remarkable similarity between its previous logo and that of Mercedes-Benz.) Since then, the bank has preferred to be referred to as "AIB", though "Allied Irish Banks plc" remains its legal name.