The High Court has confirmed a Central Bank inquiry decision fining Irish Nationwide Building Society’s former finance director John Stanley Purcell €130,000 for his role in regulatory breaches at the lender before its collapse during the financial crisis.
The president of the High Court, Mr Justice David Barniville, also confirmed the inquiry’s decision to reprimand Mr Purcell; disqualify him for four years from company involvement and to order that he and the bank pay their own legal costs related to the inquiry.
The sanctions were decided upon following the long-running inquiry by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), which cost more than €24.3m, into the conduct of INBS’ affairs.
Under the relevant law, the sanctions only come into effect if confirmed by the High Court.
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When seeking that confirmation on Tuesday, barrister Shelley Horan, for the CBI, said Mr Purcell had agreed to the application proceeding in his absence.
Mr Purcell did not intend to appeal the inquiry findings concerning him and accepted the content of the sanctions decision but had suggested a fine of €100,000, counsel said.
After the inquiry panel decided a €130,000 fine was appropriate, Mr Purcell said he would pay that within 14 days of confirmation, counsel said.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Barniville noted the Central Bank Act provided, where there is no appeal or challenge to an inquiry decision, the court “shall” confirm the decision and proposed sanction unless it involved a manifest and fundamental error of law or disproportionality.
The Central Bank inquiry looked into seven sets of alleged regulatory breaches between July 2006 and September 2008, including that INBS allegedly failed to process loans in line with its own policies and to obtain property security for commercial loans.
Between 2008 and 2010, INBS suffered financial losses in excess of €6 billion, primarily arising from the impairment of its commercial loan book. INBS cost taxpayers €5.4 billion to rescue during the financial crisis before its remains were folded in 2011 into IBRC, previously Anglo Irish Bank.
The inquiry found, between 2004 and 2008, Mr Purcell, as a board member of INBS, participated in breaches of financial services law by the lender relating to its commercial lending.
The report of the inquiry was provided to Mr Purcell and the bank’s enforcement section in April 2024 and a hearing last October heard submissions before deciding on sanctions.
On Tuesday, having considered the evidence and the law, Mr Justice Barniville said he was satisfied the court was required to make the confirmation orders sought.
The sanctions decision seemed “wholly proportionate” to the findings made and was not disputed by the bank or Mr Purcell who had adopted a “reasonable” and “sensible” approach.
Mr Purcell was among five INBS directors originally subject to the Central Bank inquiry when it was established in 2015.
After public hearings started in late 2017, the bank reached settlement agreements with three of the original five – former INBS chairman Michael Walsh; one-time head of commercial lending Tom McMenamin; and former head of UK commercial lending Gary McCollum. They were fined a total of €243,000, with the largest amount paid by Mr McCollum.
It dropped its case against the failed lender’s former long-standing managing director, Michael Fingleton, now aged 86, in December 2019, due to his health issues.
The High Court is currently hearing a civil case brought against Mr Fingleton by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), which took over INBS’s assets in 2011, for alleged negligent mismanagement of the lender. He is not in a position to give evidence in that case.
