The comments were made by Colin Hunt, CEO of AIB, during the investment bank Barclays’s global financials conference, in New York, earlier this month.
Afterwards, Barclays analysts covered Hunt’s presentation and reported in an investor note what they had learned from it. They said he had never felt as positive about the business as he does now.
According to the analysts, Hunt said the economy was performing well, noting both the expanding workforce and no fiscal concerns. He added the strong economic performance supported better loan growth prospects.
Hunt felt Ireland had a strong lending outlook, boosted by increased housing supply.
Personal lending was also up around 10pc, benefiting from higher customer numbers.
On small and medium business lending, Hunt said there had been a recovery in growth after a significant period of deleveraging, according to the analysts.
The analysts wrote that growth in lending had been supported by meaningful digitisation of the SME lending process at AIB, cutting down wait times from a number of weeks to hours.
The analysts said SME lending was now up 8pc year on year.
The note flagged downside risks from faster European Central Bank rate cuts and depositor behaviour changes.
However, Hunt said a sudden shift in deposit migration seemed unlikely in a scenario where interest rates were falling.
Green lending has also been an area of focus for AIB, with Hunt noting the bank had now achieved around €14bn of its €30bn climate lending fund ambition.
There was a big opportunity with the climate capital segment, with it having grown to around 100 employees, up from just two staff eight years ago.
On competition in the banking market, Hunt felt AIB was well-positioned. He sees AIB as being able to compete on pricing and service with its hybrid branch and digital model.
The analysts also said Hunt thought there would be a general election in either mid-November or early spring. He noted that the Budget was brought forward a week to October 1.
On the bank levy, the analysts did not expect there to be any material changes for AIB.