Report damning of regulator and Central Bank, says Lenihan

THE NYBERG report was damning of the Financial Regulator and the Central Bank, Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Brian Lenihan said. It concluded that they were aware of the problems in Anglo and in Irish Nationwide in particular, he added.

“The dependence on foreign funding and the concentration of lending in the property sector was clear from their balance sheets and the governance issue at the Irish Nationwide Building Society appeared to be well-known by the relevant authorities,’’ said Mr Lenihan.

He added that there was sufficient information available to the regulator to take decisive action in the case of both institutions.

Lending, said Mr Lenihan, had not been scrutinised and there was an unwillingness to engage in any detail, or what was possibly perceived to be intrusive verification, to establish if the banks were behaving in a prudent manner.

A preliminary assessment that the position was drifting into a crisis was never made in the first place, he added.

Mr Lenihan said the report did not accept that lack of resources or powers was a reason for the failure of the regulator to intervene. He added that while the Department of Finance had identified various risks to the economy, no single comprehensive analysis, integrating those risks and assessing their implications for the economy, was carried out.

Sinn Féin spokesman Pearse Doherty said that rather than relying on deposits from private savers, financial institutions began to rely on wholesale funding markets which they believed would continue to be available.

“The report has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that the behaviour of financial institutions, regulators and governments has the power to inflict great harm on the real economy,’’ he added.

“As a result of this crisis, the financial system has been completely and utterly damaged.’’ Mr Doherty said that more than 440,000 people were unemployed, 1,000 people were emigrating weekly and at the end of last year 44,500 mortgages were in arrears for over 90 days and 80,000 mortgages distressed.

Shane Ross (Ind) said the last people the Minister for Finance should be asking for a renewal programme was the board for AIB.

“That is the board that gave Colm Doherty the €3 million we have been talking about for the past few days.’’

Richard Boyd Barrett (ULA) said the report had spectacularly failed to identify the causes of the financial and economic crisis.