# Name the good guys and the bad guys



## Brendan Burgess (3 Oct 2010)

Kathleen Barrington has a good article in today's Sunday Business Post about the banking investigation by Peter Nyberg.

She wants him to name any of the directors, auditors, risk managers, or public servants who warned about the risks, even if they were overruled by their bosses.


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## BazFitz (3 Oct 2010)

One of the documentaries on RTE claimed that middle managers who highlighted risky lending were simply "managed out" and branded troublemakers.  This should definitely be highlighted.


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## Brendan Burgess (4 Oct 2010)

According to today's [broken link removed], the former chairman of the Irish Nationwide has claimed that they had an effective board. Seems a strange claim to me. 



> THE FORMER chairman of Irish Nationwide, Michael Walsh, has said  anyone who was involved in banking during the crisis was unhappy with  what had happened.
> 
> Speaking as he arrived at Dublin airport on Friday  night off a flight from London, Dr Walsh was replying to a question  about whether he felt any remorse about the cost of the lender's bailout  or with what had happened at the now State-controlled lender.  He declined to comment on the Government's move to double the State's  bailout of Irish Nationwide from €2.7 billion to €5.4 billion last week  due to higher than expected losses on property loans.
> 
> ...


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## tiger (4 Oct 2010)

Perhaps some of the people from this article in yesterdays tribune


> The Untouchables
> During the boom they had absolute power. They couldn't be touched. They couldn't be stopped. And even now, with Ireland on its knees, they still can't.


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## canicemcavoy (4 Oct 2010)

Instead of naming the innocent, why don't we name the guilty instead?

Also, did Barrington ever write about her experiences with the Financial Regulator? I believe she was on the consumer panel.


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## Howitzer (11 Oct 2010)

BazFitz said:


> One of the documentaries on RTE claimed that middle managers who highlighted risky lending were simply "managed out" and branded troublemakers.  This should definitely be highlighted.


Eugene McErlean?

Kathleen Barrington gives [broken link removed] of what happened to him when he raised flags about AIB (which as an AIB Internal Auditor he was paid to do). 

A lot of blame laid at the then Regulators door and I think gives a very good explanation why no one said stop when things got insane with AIB's (or indeed any major Irish banks) lending practices.



> If the government and the regulatory authorities want to help restore confidence in our banking system, they should move to appoint people such as McErlean to the boards of our banks and regulatory authorities.
> 
> Come to think of it, how about appointing him to the board of AIB, where there are now plenty of vacancies following the departures of a further two non-executive directors last week?


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## Brendan Burgess (11 Oct 2010)

> I think gives a very good explanation why no one said stop when things got insane



I don't think that it explains it at all. 

It tells us that when someone shouted stop, the Financial Regulator ignored him. It doesn't tell us why. Which is still a mystery to me. 

Brendan


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## Howitzer (11 Oct 2010)

Brendan Burgess said:


> I don't think that it explains it at all.
> 
> It tells us that when someone shouted stop, the Financial Regulator ignored him. It doesn't tell us why. Which is still a mystery to me.
> 
> Brendan


I meant internally within the banks. That having seen Eugene McErlean's professional reputation destroyed for simply doing his job no one else was prepared to rock the boat.


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