INSIDE THE WORLD OF BUSINESS:Little hurry to bring back industry panel; A fig leaf all Robinson and McGuinness can hope for;
THE FINANCIAL Services Consultative Industry Panel signed off yesterday with its final annual report, the main takeaway from which was the suggestion that the reformed Central Bank should consider creating the post of chief operating officer.
The panel – which is chaired by David Went, chairman of the Irish Times Ltd – also lamented the decision to abolish it as part of the reforms.
With the panel will go the mechanism by which the industry comments on regulatory policy and also on the fees levied on the industry by the regulator to fund its activities. It’s hard to know which one the industry will miss most.
The new Central Bank Act grants the bank the power to set up advisory panels as it sees fit, but to date there has been little to suggest that it is in any hurry to bring back an industry panel.
If anything, the bank has made it clear that it prefers direct consultation with the industry and other stakeholders. In a speech to launch its new approach to banking supervision, the assistant director general for policy and risk Patrick Brady banged the drum for the need for openness and transparency in consultation processes as well as in everything else the bank does.
In particular, he defended the policy of publishing any comments they receive in response to consultation papers, pointing out: “If your comments cannot be published, they are either spurious or do not stand up to any level of scrutiny or critique.”
This does not sound very much like an organisation with any appetite for setting up a panel of industry insiders to air their views in private.
A fig leaf all Robinson and McGuinness can hope for
IF AIB did not have enough problems they now face the combined wrath of Northern Ireland’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness have told the Irish Bank Officials Association that they will raise the “issue” of the proposed sale of First Trust Bank at the next meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council.
The issue appears to be the concern of the IBOA that any sale of the bank’s assets in the North and Britain will inevitably result in job cuts as buyers are probably more interested in the loan books of the UK operations than the infrastructure.
It is not an irrational fear given the extent to which banks are retrenching in the UK. The very low level of interest shown in the portfolio of UK bank branches put up for sale by RBS recently, also adds credence to this view.
It is without a doubt a pretty poor reward for the 800 or so staff in the UK who had less to do with the mismanagement that brought AIB to its knees than most. Selling the UK business now will simply compound the original errors, they argue.
Indeed. But, at the same time it is hard to see what Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness expect the Irish Government to do about it.
The UK business is being put up for sale as part of the recapitalisation plan agreed by the Government. That plan has been approved by the European Commission and reopening the process is not really on anyone’s agenda. Happily for the Irish Government the matter is now out of their hands.
The best that Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness can hope for – and presumably what they are looking for – is some sort of political fig leaf for internal consumption in Northern Ireland. If they are seriously expecting something more than that, then it would appear that even at this stage they have not taken the time to acquaint themselves fully with the extent of the world class train wreck that is the Irish banking system. And that would be something for the voters of Northern Ireland to really worry about.
TODAY
The future of the VHI will be in focus, as the company issues its 2009 results. Elsewhere, an up-to-date picture of the construction sector should emerge from the CSO's first-quarter building and construction production figures.
