Financial regulator Patrick Neary will be questioned on the body’s role in overseeing the recent controversy over hidden loans at Anglo Irish bank when he appears before an Oireachtas committee tomorrow.
Mr Neary announced last Friday he would retire at the end of January in the wake of the loans scandal.
Anglo chairman Sean FitzPatrick resigned last month after it emerged he had been transferring loans of up to €87 million off the bank’s books at its financial year end, over an eight-year period, so they would not appear on the balance sheet.
Mr Neary had come under increasing pressure to step down after claims that staff at his office first learned of the Anglo issue in January of last year. But an internal report found Mr Neary had no prior knowledge of the Anglo loans issue, until it became public in December.
Mr Neary and chairman of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority Jim Farrell will appear before the Joint Committee on Economic Regulatory Affairs.
Mr Neary was unable to attend the committee on two previous occasions before Christmas and again last week because the issue was still under investigation by IFSRA.
An Oireachtas spokesman said today: “Mr Neary and Mr Farrell will be attending the committee as scheduled.”
An investigation by an IFSRA committee found Mr Neary had no knowledge of the Anglo Irish Bank loans because the watchdog’s banking supervision department, which was investigating the issue, did not inform him due to a breakdown in internal communications.
“There is no suggestion from any party that any communication - verbal or written - on this issue was made to the chief executive in the period to December 2008,” the report said.
Three executives including chief executive David Drumm, non-executive director Lar Bradshaw and finance director William McAteer later resigned from Anglo over the hidden loans issue.
IFSRA also admitted it did not exercise its option under legislation to alert the director of corporate enforcement nor did it contact Irish Nationwide, to whom Mr Fitzpatrick had transferred the loans. The body promised to review the quality of its communication channels and document filing procedures within its organisation.
Following the Anglo controversy, the watchdog announced it would examine directors’ loans at all banks covered by the Government’s guarantee scheme.
Anglo Irish Bank is holding an EGM of shareholders on Friday to approve the Government’s €1.5 billion bank capitalisation scheme.
IFSRA consumer director Mary O’Dea has been appointed as acting chief executive of the authority while the Government considers nominees to fill the position.
The representative body for small and medium firms, meanwhile, today called for the entire board of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority to be removed for its “gross incompetence”.
Additional reporting: PA