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.
He also had no comment on his stewardship as chairman of the building society or the management of the institution by former chief executive Michael Fingleton.
Dr Walsh said that it "isn't true" to say Irish Nationwide did not have an effective board.
A former professor of banking and finance at UCD, Dr Walsh joined the board of Irish Nationwide in 2001 and was in charge of the board of the building society over the period when it lent heavily to a small group of property developers and investors.
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.
Eugene McErlean?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.
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?
I think gives a very good explanation why no one said stop when things got insane
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.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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