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# AIB lifts 2026 net interest income guidance above €3.85bn and new lending rises 17%
- URL: https://www.theglobalbanker.com/aib-lifts-2026-net-interest-income-guidance-above-eur3-85bn-and-new-lending-rises-17/
- Published: 2026-11-04T23:06:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-04T23:06:14.000Z
- Description: AIB Group now expects 2026 net interest income above €3.85bn, and its new lending rose 17% to €12.3bn in the nine months to September.
- Author: TGB Editorial Team
- Tags: Banking News, Europe, #newsroom, #needs-photo

[AIB Group](https://www.theglobalbanker.com/rankings-europe/) raised its 2026 guidance for net interest income, customer loans and deposits, and now expects net interest income above €3.85bn, up from above €3.8bn. The forecast assumes an ECB deposit rate of 2.50% and a BOE rate of 4.00% at December 2026.

Net interest income for the nine months to September was €2.87bn, 2% higher than a year earlier, mainly on higher average volumes, the bank said. New lending rose 17% to €12.3bn, of which 43% was green lending, and gross loans grew by €4.0bn since December 2025 to €76.3bn.

## LENDING LIFTS THE OUTLOOK

For 2026, AIB now expects customer loans to grow by 5-6%, against about 5% previously, and customer deposits by 3-4%, against about 3%. Gross loans stood at €72.3bn at the end of 2025, and deposits have since risen 2.7% to €120.4bn from €117.2bn.

Capital Markets new lending increased by 16% to €3.8bn, while Climate & Infrastructure Capital lent €2.0bn, €0.9bn more than a year earlier. New mortgage lending in Ireland rose 4% to €3.2bn, a market share of 28.4%.

## CAPITAL AND DISTRIBUTIONS

The common equity tier 1 ratio fell to 15.7% at September from 16.1% in June, mainly because balance sheet growth lifted risk-weighted assets. That figure excludes nine-month profit, which generated about 260 basis points of CET1 and awaits a payout decision at year end.

After the ECB's 2026 supervisory review, AIB's Pillar 2 requirement falls by 20 basis points to 2.20% from 1 January 2027\. In October the bank completed its third SRT, on about €2.5bn of project finance assets, with a positive initial CET1 impact of about 30 basis points.

The €1bn buyback announced in March had reached €740m by September and about €849m by 3 November 2026\. AIB said its search for a chief financial officer is well advanced.

## THE TGB VIEW

AIB ranks 49th in TGB's Europe table, one place behind Bank of Ireland, but it earned a 14.6% return on equity in 2025 against 9.3% at Bank of Ireland, with equity at 9.9% of assets against 7.8%. For 2026, AIB guides for a return on tangible equity above 20%. The next dated test is March 2027, when AIB reports 2026 results and sets out its strategy to 2030.