Banks and the ‘good old days of reckless lending’

Sir, – I see that Irish banks have written to the European Commission calling on it to relax rules around bank capitalisation introduced after the financial crash so they can “unlock lending capacity” (“Irish banks call on Europe to relax financial crash-era rules so they can lend more”, Business, April 24th).

I observed, in my work as a barrister, the consequences of the utter recklessness of Irish banks pre the crash, and the idea that the same banks would now seek any relaxation of capital rules is abhorrent, and should be called out for what it is, namely, a chance to get back to the “good old days of reckless lending”. – Yours, etc,

PAUL H O’NEILL,

Clontarf,

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Dublin 3.