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Mon 12 Dec 2008Share price says the game is up for Anglo Irish Bank
OPINION:IT IS clear from the share price of Anglo Irish Bank that no one - apart from its board, presumably - believes management when they say they the bad debts in its €73 billion loan book will amount to a manageable €879 million while the economy shrinks by up to 4 per cent next year, writes John McManus.
But this alone is not the sum of Anglo's difficulties. The truth is that nobody believes the management of any of the Irish banks when it comes to their bad debts and thus the scale of capital write-offs to come in the next few years. It also follows that no one believes the Financial Regulator and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), its adviser, who both say the banks are solvent and adequately capitalised to meet projected losses.
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