Allied Irish Banks PLC announced Wednesday it was dropping accountancy giants PricewaterhouseCoopers as its external auditors because of the embarrassing scandal at U.S. subsidiary Allfirst.

Ireland's largest bank said it would seek a new external auditor as part of wider efforts to restore public confidence in Allfirst of Baltimore, Maryland, where a lone dealer has been accused of covering up dlrs 691.2 million in fraudulent losses.

An AIB-commissioned report published last month accused trader John Rusnak of forging documents and deceiving colleagues for four years as he sought to claw back mounting losses from foreign-exchange deals.

Rusnak, 37, has been cooperating with federal investigators and has yet to be charged with any crime.

Bank chiefs have previously said PricewaterhouseCoopers' external auditors were not to blame for missing Rusnak's schemes, which they say involved fabricating documents that appeared to show trading profits.

The internal report concentrated on sloppiness and outdated practices in Allfirst, and AIB fired six senior Allfirst managers in response.

Gary Kennedy, AIB's director of finance and risk, said he still had "the highest regard" for PricewaterhouseCoopers and the bank would "look forward to using a range of their services in the future."

Catherine Burke, chief spokeswoman for AIB, said the banking group wanted "to take a fresh approach, to do something new, the result being that his contract is being put out to tender."

The bank expects to announce the new firm handling external audit in mid-May.

AIB, which represents about 16 percent of the total share value of the Irish Stock Exchange, is the largest retail bank in the Republic of Ireland, operates branch networks in Northern Ireland and Britain, and holds a controlling stake in a Polish bank.

It formed Allfirst in 1999 from the merger of two Maryland financial institutions.

The U.S. operation has about 250 branches operating from Virginia to Pennsylvania.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is the world's largest accountancy firm, reporting worldwide revenue last year of dlrs 19.83 billion. It has been netting some of the clients previously served by Arthur Andersen, which is in a state of collapse because of its role in the Enron Corp. scandal.

With acknowledgements to AP and Sapa.