# Irish Nationwide Building Society - did we just throw good money after bad?



## MrEarl (6 Feb 2020)

Hello,

It seems that the Central Bank don't want to tell us how much they spent, over a 10-year period, investigating INBS and Michael Fingleton.

See:  https://m.independent.ie/business/i...ish-nationwide-building-society-38930946.html

Was that investigation into lending practices at INBS, the way the Building Society was run by Michael Fingleton despite apparent calls from the Central Bank to have INBS radically improve their internal Governance issues etc. ever really going to go anywhere, or was it just throwing good money after bad, so the Central Bank could be seen to be following up on issues that it probably should have dealt with properly, 10-15 years earlier ?

I've no doubt that if this investigation had been taking place in the USA, that Michael Fingleton would have been compelled to appear in front of an enquiry and perhaps, even in court, regardless of his "poor health", which apparently prevented him from attending meetings or enquiries going back many years.

Michael Fingleton may well be ill these  days, but I bet he's still laughing at how easily he won the game of cat and mouse with the Central Bank.


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## IsleOfMan (6 Feb 2020)

Back in the day in another life, 80's and 90's we always had a stream of people coming to us, asking us to take over their mortgage from them. Penalty interest, fees, statements they couldn't understand.


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## NoRegretsCoyote (6 Feb 2020)

The sums involved are a bit of a red herring.

_*The real issue is why it has taken so long*_*. *INBS was nationalised in 2010, closed its branches in 2011 I think and was liquidated (as part of IBRC) in 2013.


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## roker (30 Apr 2020)

Myself and many others lost out on our windfall because Fingers would not   privatetise


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## MrEarl (30 Apr 2020)

roker said:


> Myself and many others lost out on our windfall because Fingers would not   privatetise



Former members of the EBS, could say the same thing. 

The demutualisation issue should not be confused with the other issues that existed at INBS - such as lack of true corporate governance, independent credit risk functions etc.


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