Fingleton has taken out in excess of £1.25m in loans from Irish Nationwide

The managing director of the Irish Nationwide Building Society, Mr Michael Fingleton, has taken out loans totalling more than £1.25 million from the society, according to the register of directors' interests held by the Central Bank.

The largest single loan was for £757,750, advanced in March last year, according to documents filed with the Central Bank last month. The loan was made at a rate of 4.85 per cent, fixed for one year, with a term of seven years.

Mr Fingleton took out a further loan of £77,000 in 1999, and loans of £100,000 and £60,000 in 1998. Another loan of £40,000 in 1998 was taken out in the name of Mr Fingleton and his wife. In 1997, he took out loans of £90,000 and £25,000.

The first loan recorded in Mr Fingleton's name dates from December 1993, when he took out a loan of £110,000. This was registered in May 1993, shortly after The Irish Times revealed that Mr Fingleton failed to register the mortgage, as required by the Building Societies Act 1989.

He secured the loan of £110,000 on commercial terms, amounting to two-thirds of the purchase price of the four flats which he bought in the Mespil Estate the previous December.

When asked at the time, Mr Fingleton said the loan was not registered as he had been advised by the society's compliance officer and auditors that this was not necessary because the loan was made on commercial terms.

"This interpretation in my view was erroneous and the matter is now being rectified," he said.

Huge controversy surrounded the sale by Irish Life of 299 flats in the Mespil Estate in Dublin 4 in 1993 to a group of investors which included prominent business, political, media and legal names. Residents of the estate, many of them elderly, long-term tenants, were not invited to buy their flats.

Building societies are required by law to list the interests of directors in registers which are open to public inspection. Under the Building Societies Act, loans made to directors, the interests of directors either directly or indirectly in any contracts or proposed contracts with the society, and the contracts of service of executive directors are filed on registers for inspection.

Mr Fingleton made several appearances at the Flood tribunal last month in connection with the tribunal's demand for documents from the INBS's branch in Patrick Street, Cork, for the period 1987 to 1989. The tribunal is investigating allegations that money from a branch account was used to pay £100,000 to two Fianna Fail politicians.

Mr Fingleton told the tribunal that the society had difficulty producing all the documents required by the tribunal. Many records had been destroyed during flooding at the central storage area.

At last week's a.g.m, Mr Fingleton told shareholders that Irish Nationwide had come in for unwarranted negative publicity in recent months. The Flood tribunal would not unearth any "skeletons" at the building society, he insisted.