Praise from across the water for Lenihan

BRIAN LENIHAN probably isn’t a regular reader of Irish America magazine but the latest edition offers support for his handling of the banking crisis.

Brian Moynihan, the head of Bank of America’s global banking and wealth management unit and a man with Irish roots, praises the Government’s decision to guarantee the banks late last year.

“I thought the Irish Government did a good job of stabilising the situation,” said Moynihan, who has responsibility for integrating Merrill Lynch into BoA’s business. “What’s hard to appreciate here is how much more consolidated most economies are compared to the US.

“When you have three of four key institutions that aren’t stable and people start pulling their money out, it’s really tough. So I think the Government did the right thing to calm the population down by guaranteeing their deposits, guaranteeing the liability side, and injecting capital.

“I assume their goal would be to sell their stock positions down over time as the economy stabilises.”

Moynihan visited Ireland with his family in 2008 and couldn’t believe the froth in the property market. “In Ireland, I saw houses that were valued at over $2 million, beautiful houses but miles from the city in the countryside, where population pressures were non-existent.

“People bought outside their means, they could’ve taken cash out to do something else with it.”

What should Ireland do to next?

“The country has got a lot of great resources, a lot of great people. It’s a question of how do you keep reinventing yourself to stay ahead of the game, because these things always naturally have an ebb and flow to them.”

BoA is a big employer in Ireland though its MBNA credit card subsidiary in Carrick- on-Shannon.

Accounts just filed by MBNA Ireland Ltd show that it has set aside €322,044 for the “probable repayment” of employment grants received from the IDA for positions that have been vacant for more than six months. A sign of the times, unfortunately.