Report extracts contain as much as possible, says Lenihan

POLITICAL REACTION:THE EXTRACTS from the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report into Anglo Irish Bank contain as much information as possible given legal constraints and the need to maintain confidentiality, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said last night, amid criticism from the Opposition in relation to the Government's handling of the report.

Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton said the timing of the release of extracts from the report after 9pm last night was “typical of the inept manner” in which it had dealt with an issue that was of widespread concern to taxpayers.

“The significant delay by the Government in releasing the heavily edited PricewaterhouseCoopers report on Anglo Irish Bank, and its secretive approach throughout, do nothing to inspire confidence in the Government’s handling of this crisis,” Mr Bruton said. He also said the report was “dated” as it did not reflect the recent deterioration in the economy.

Mr Lenihan said there was an important public interest in publishing the extracts, but added that client bank confidentiality was “essential to maintain depositor confidence”. He said the loan loss scenarios presented by PwC were not predictions, but were “intended to show how the bank’s loan book would perform under various stress conditions”.

Meanwhile, the publication of the bank’s annual report brought a “regrettable chapter” in its history to an end, the Minister said.

“I can assure the Irish public that those involved in any wrongdoing will be brought to justice, that these matters will be fully investigated and every care will be taken to ensure that the full rigours of the law, both civil and criminal, apply to any person involved in wrongdoing in Anglo Irish Bank.”

Revealing the names of the controversial group of 10 investors in Anglo could put at risk future prosecutions, if these were deemed appropriate, Taoiseach Brian Cowen told a news conference in Cardiff yesterday. Speaking after a meeting of the British-Irish Council, Mr Cowen was asked whether he believed the names should be released on the basis that the public interest in knowing the names overrode banking confidentiality.

“It’s not just a question of banking confidentiality,” he replied. “There’s actually the legal obligation on the regulator to abide by, not only Irish banking law, but international banking law in dealing with this matter.”

The position of the Government and his own stance as a politician and public representative was that “we would like to see these investigations and this phase of these investigations brought to a conclusion as soon as possible so that we can provide – or it can be provided to the public – the information that people are asking about”.

The two main Opposition parties said the bank’s annual report was lacking in detail and failed to allay a deep sense of public anger.

Mr Bruton said the report provided no real answers to explain the substantial failures within the bank. “There are no explanations in the report as to why this happened and as to why the taxpayer is left as the patsy,” he said.

There would be a lot of “anger and frustration” at what was contained in the report, he added.

“We see the directors who drove this bank into a wall walking off with €9.5 million in fees and the taxpayer left to pick up greater losses than expected,” he said.

“We have not been told the size of the hole in the loan book. That is one of the frustrating aspects of the report. The taxpayer is exposed to an €80 billion loan book. We just do not know how impaired that is.”

Labour deputy leader Joan Burton said the taxpayer was no wiser as to the structure of the deal designed for the 10 investors.

She also contended that the fact that the bank was now in public ownership would have allowed Anglo to specify in full the amounts and recipients of the €179 million in directors’ loans. The only loan to a director about which full information is available is the €83 million owed by former chairman Seán FitzPatrick.

The Minister for Finance was “in denial” about the failure of governance at Anglo Irish Bank, Ms Burton said: “He’s talking about closing a chapter, but in reality, we haven’t even opened the book.”