BOI At Lowest Price For Over 10 Years

The recent economic tumult has seen the Bank of Ireland's share price slump to levels not seen since 1997.

The bank's shares fell by 14% after an announcement it was to cut its half-year and full-year payouts to shareholders, with its share price now standing at €3.88 - well below its Feburary 2007 peak of €18.65.

The bank has shed €14 billion in value since the beginning of the sub-prime crises in America, which continues to 'slay financial giants' and is presently amidst a virtual massacre.

The UK's biggest mortgage lender, HBOS, was the latest of the vanquished, after dropping its previously shimmering share price, and falling victim to a take-over by its main rival, Lloyds TSB in a £12.2bn deal.

Financil institutions around the world have been 'running for their lives' since the fall of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, the forth biggest such institution in the world.

The defaulting on sub-prime loans by US citizens led to a fall in confidence in worlds leading mortgage lenders, whose complexity in their asset holdings forced investors to re-assess their value, and led to severe falls in share prices sending shockwaves around the world.

Russia's main stock markets have even gone into total suspension in an effort to prevent a meltdown after steep falls in share prices, while the US government has made unprecedented moves to bail out its flailing banks.

See: NI Economy Positive Despite 'Crisis'

(DW)