The chairman of Anglo Irish Bank Alan Dukes has called for a rapid and sharp restructuring of the Irish financial system to create at least two viable banks.
Mr Dukes said that the team from the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank must move quickly to repair the banking system with a major restructuring even if it is painful.
He also said that he saw further bank nationalisations.
Speaking to the annual conference of the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland, he said that there was a danger of accepting "too easily" the loans being made available by the EU and IMF as a contingency fund, not all of which would be drawn down.
"We need to take massive and decisive action quickly to produce at least two viable ongoing banks for the Irish system," said Mr Dukes. "The sooner and the more quickly we do that, the more quickly we will get into a position where we can return to some kind of normality in our relationship with markets."
Mr Dukes told reporters later that the Government's plan to split Anglo into an asset recovery bank and a funding bank would have been to be reconsidered given the proposed restructuring of the banking system. He suggested that if the other banks had to be cleaned up further, then Anglo could be used to do this.
He described the bank's revised plan on its restructuring into an asset recovery and a funding bank as "a bit out-dated at this stage".
Anglo had not received any word back from the European Commission on the plan which was submitted at the end of last month. The bank had suffered deposit outflows in recent months, Mr Dukes said, but he didn't think it was at the same level as Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland which had lost €13 billion and €10 billion respectively since June.
Mr Dukes said borrowing by the Irish banks from the European Central Bank and the Central Bank had become "unsustainable".
No discussions had taken place between Anglo and International Monetary Fund offices and that no talks had been planned. "It is a pity if there is not some engagement," he said.
