THE FORMER chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm, had loans with the bank of about €7.7 million in the months leading up to its nationalisation last January, according to bank records seen by The Irish Times.
Mr Drumm is among a group of former high-ranking executives and existing managers at Anglo who owed large sums to the bank at about the time it was taken into State ownership. This newspaper has established that the four most senior long-standing managers who are still at the bank had total loans of about €15 million earlier this year.
Pat Whelan, the head of the bank’s Irish business, had a loan of about €5 million, while the head of Anglo’s US business, Tony Campbell, had a similar-sized loan. The executive in charge of Anglo’s UK business, Declan Quilligan, had a loan of about €3.3 million, while Anglo’s director of group finance, Matt Moran, had loans of about €2 million.
Mr Whelan and Mr Moran declined to comment on their loans. Repeated efforts to reach Mr Campbell and Mr Quilligan at their respective offices in Boston and London, on their mobile phones and by e-mail were unsuccessful.
A spokesman for the bank said it could not discuss customers’ affairs, citing client confidentiality.
Mr Whelan stepped down as a director on Anglo’s board last February, while Mr Quilligan resigned last month. Both remain in senior management roles.
This newspaper reported on Thursday of last week that Mr Drumm flew in from the United States to meet Anglo’s new chief executive, Mike Aynsley, the previous day to discuss his loans.
It was Mr Drumm’s first high-level meeting with Anglo to discuss his loans with the bank since his departure last December.
Asked as he entered the meeting at the bank’s offices in Heritage House on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin whether he would answer questions, Mr Drumm declined. “How did you know I would be here?” he asked.
Anglo’s former chairman Seán FitzPatrick had loans of €106.8 million owing last March. Former finance director Willie McAteer had a loan of €8 million owing at that time. The loan is secured on Anglo shares, which are effectively worthless following the bank’s nationalisation.
Mr McAteer’s loan was originally “non-recourse”, meaning it was secured only on the shares, but the loan was later changed to a full personal recourse basis.
Mr Drumm and Mr McAteer resigned after it emerged last year that Mr FitzPatrick had concealed his loans with Anglo over eight years in an arrangement with Irish Nationwide Building Society.
Mr Drumm received a pay package of €2.1 million from Anglo for the year to September 2008, according to the bank’s annual report, while Mr FitzPatrick received €539,000, Mr McAteer €660,000, Mr Quilligan €770,000 and Mr Whelan €650,000. Pay to Mr Campbell and Mr Moran was not disclosed.
Government-appointed board members of Anglo told an Oireachtas committee last June that Anglo set aside €31 million to cover any losses on loans owing by directors and former directors. The committee was told that “a very small proportion” of this sum related to current directors.
The board members said they would seek repayment of loans owing by former directors and senior managers. A Department of Finance spokesman said that the Minister, Brian Lenihan, must approve changes to the terms of loans to former Anglo directors but that no proposals had been submitted.