Prior to the Irish financial crisis he was a persistent critic of the performance of
Bank of Ireland, of which he was a shareholder. He contrasted the conservative performance of the "establishment" Bank of Ireland with other financial institutions, notably
Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) and
Anglo Irish Bank (Anglo) which he praised. In his Sunday Independent column he described
Michael Fingleton's Irish Nationwide as publishing
"a cracking set of figures... he even leaves superstar Sean Fitzpatrick's Anglo Irish standing"[28] " and in another column dismissed shareholder critics of Fingleton, notably Brendan Burgess
[29] and contrasted the small shareholder rebellions of Eircom, Smurfit and First Active with that of the INBS, whose CEO, he claimed
"despite all his abrasiveness, was delivering small riches to them" ,
[30] Ross dismissed the corporate governance concerns of Fingleton's critics writing
"for all his faults, has delivered the only thing that matters in business: profit".
[30] In his article on Pernod Ricard executive Richard Burrows' appointment as the Governor of the Bank of Ireland Ross claimed it was mainly due to Burrows' social status as a "
toff" and criticized the bank for not even interviewing the
"far too dynamic" Sean FitzPatrick, then CEO of Anglo Irish Bank.
[31] In 2007 Ross praised
Sean Quinn's purchase of a stake in
"anti-establishment Anglo Irish Bank" and referred to Quinn as
"this genius... [who] has combined being a champion of the customer with making a mint",
[32] describing
Quinn Direct as
"the most successful insurance business in Ireland".
.
