Irish Nationwide inquiry has been a long time coming

Seven years after the banking crash, the Central Bank of Ireland has decided to hold an inquiry into alleged regulatory breaches by Irish Nationwide and some of its former executives.

There’s a touch of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted in this. Irish Nationwide had its authorisation revoked in July 2011, having been nationalised the previous year following a €5.4 billion bailout by the State.

It later became part of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which was liquidated by the Government in February 2013.

The regulator has also been rather vague about the nature of the breaches and has not said how many former Irish Nationwide executives will be subject to the inquiry. It has also decided not to name them at this point.

We have to assume Michael Fingleton, who ran Irish Nationwide for 38 years until his departure in 2009, is on its list. He is facing a civil action from the liquidator of IBRC while the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry has directed him to appear before the committee in September.

Bizarrely, the Central Bank did not initially release the names of three members of the inquiry panel, before having a change of heart. The inquiry could be held in public but this is not a given. Among the sanctions available to the regulator if a breach is confirmed against an individual, is a fine of up to €500,000. That was the level before a change in the rules in 2013, which means it can levy fines of up to €1 million for breaches.

The wheels of justice move slowly in Ireland and the regulator unquestionably had a lot on its plate following the financial crash in late 2008.

But why has it taken so long for it to “suspect” that Irish Nationwide “committed certain prescribed contraventions” and that various unnamed individuals at the building society might have “participated in the commission of those suspected prescribed contraventions”?

Still, better late than never.