Today, I was informed by a source in New-York that our very own movers & shakers have been hitting the streets of the Big Apple in a last breath attempt to attract the finance needed to prevent the nationalisation of yet another major Irish bank.
That would be another of the Irish banks that according to Matthew Eledrfield, Head of Financial Regulation at the Central Bank of Ireland, were well on the way to recovery. That would be due to all the generous help they have received - the billions you and I have given to them. Let's remember that this regulatory genius wrote just last April in the Irish Independent:
"It will take time to recover to a stronger banking sector, backed by more effective regulation, and to sounder public finances. But the road to recovery has started.
The recent Central Bank stress tests are an important milestone on that road.... "
How much do we pay this man? For those of you who perhaps don't know him. He is a graduate of Cambridge University. He was also the official at the British Financial Regulator, the FSA, who was responsible for Northern Rock in the months before it collapsed (way to go Mathew!). That was apparently more than enough of a recommendation for our government to hire him.
Back in the Independent in April, Mathew went on to gush,
"...I meet so many people in Ireland who want to get on with it and demonstrate a hugely impressive determination to face up to the task. I'm determined that the Central Bank builds a regulatory system that learns the lessons of the past and works hard to rebuild the banking system step by step. And I'm optimistic that the recent stress tests were a very big step in the right direction."
http://www.independent.ie/
Nice that he was determined. Sadly not determined enough to stop another bank going under, on his watch just 3 months later. To paraphrase a famous Irishman, Oscar WiIde, "To lose one bank may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness, Matthew."
And so here we are with another bank rumoured to be going broke and the financial titans of Dublin desperate to flog it to whoever will take it off their hands. And remember, they've had practice at this sort of grovelling. Our Fine Gael leaders were practising bank-flogging even before they came to power. No sooner had the Fianna Fail government raided our tax payers pockets to resuscitate our defunct banks, our ex Fine Gael Prime-Minister was out in the Arabian Gulf flogging said banks:
Ireland looks to Persian Gulf to buy its banks - Tehran Times, December 2010
"Top Irish officials have approached Persian Gulf sovereign wealth funds to gauge interest in the sale of Ireland’s banks after the €85 billion (Dh412.26bn) bailout from European governments and the IMF.
John Bruton, a former Irish prime minister, is leading a delegation from the country on a whistle-stop tour of the region as Ireland prepares to sell assets...."
http://www.tehrantimes.com/
So, where are we? We have a new Irish government and a new Financial Regulator. What has changed? Very little.
That would be another of the Irish banks that according to Matthew Eledrfield, Head of Financial Regulation at the Central Bank of Ireland, were well on the way to recovery. That would be due to all the generous help they have received - the billions you and I have given to them. Let's remember that this regulatory genius wrote just last April in the Irish Independent:
"It will take time to recover to a stronger banking sector, backed by more effective regulation, and to sounder public finances. But the road to recovery has started.
The recent Central Bank stress tests are an important milestone on that road.... "
How much do we pay this man? For those of you who perhaps don't know him. He is a graduate of Cambridge University. He was also the official at the British Financial Regulator, the FSA, who was responsible for Northern Rock in the months before it collapsed (way to go Mathew!). That was apparently more than enough of a recommendation for our government to hire him.
Back in the Independent in April, Mathew went on to gush,
"...I meet so many people in Ireland who want to get on with it and demonstrate a hugely impressive determination to face up to the task. I'm determined that the Central Bank builds a regulatory system that learns the lessons of the past and works hard to rebuild the banking system step by step. And I'm optimistic that the recent stress tests were a very big step in the right direction."
http://www.independent.ie/
Nice that he was determined. Sadly not determined enough to stop another bank going under, on his watch just 3 months later. To paraphrase a famous Irishman, Oscar WiIde, "To lose one bank may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness, Matthew."
And so here we are with another bank rumoured to be going broke and the financial titans of Dublin desperate to flog it to whoever will take it off their hands. And remember, they've had practice at this sort of grovelling. Our Fine Gael leaders were practising bank-flogging even before they came to power. No sooner had the Fianna Fail government raided our tax payers pockets to resuscitate our defunct banks, our ex Fine Gael Prime-Minister was out in the Arabian Gulf flogging said banks:
Ireland looks to Persian Gulf to buy its banks - Tehran Times, December 2010
"Top Irish officials have approached Persian Gulf sovereign wealth funds to gauge interest in the sale of Ireland’s banks after the €85 billion (Dh412.26bn) bailout from European governments and the IMF.
John Bruton, a former Irish prime minister, is leading a delegation from the country on a whistle-stop tour of the region as Ireland prepares to sell assets...."
http://www.tehrantimes.com/
So, where are we? We have a new Irish government and a new Financial Regulator. What has changed? Very little.