THE IRISH Bank Officials’ Association clashed with members of the Oireachtas Finance Committee yesterday on whether rank-and-file bankers were as responsible as bank executives for the crisis.
In heated exchanges, IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick said officials had followed lending policies directed by management.
He complained that the culture in Irish banking had not changed and that officials still worked in a “climate of fear” and that their work was “as oppressive as ever”.
The €64 billion bank recapitalisation had arisen from heavy lending to 100 customers, which was approved by the head offices of banks, not officials, he said.
“I can’t see how we can be held responsible for serious mismanagement in the industry,” he said.
Senator Seán Barrett accused the bankers’ union of adopting “a kind of Nuremberg defence” – a charge rejected by Mr Broderick.
Dr Barrett said Irish bankers were the worst in the world and that this had to be acknowledged. “You are the people who brought down this country. Don’t come in here with victimhood written all over yourselves,” he said.
Mr Broderick said the IBOA had raised concerns since 2001 about the focus on performance-related pay and bonuses linked to higher sales. Mr Broderick and Senator Aideen Hayden each accused the other of being disingenuous.
“It is disingenuous of you to say that we are here peddling something that we don’t feel strongly about,” said Mr Broderick.
Senator Hayden queried the union’s scrutiny of bank practices at the peak of the lending boom.
“As a group of people who were trusted by the Irish people, I think you need to ask yourself if you let the Irish people down,” she said.
Mr Broderick said many of his members had paid the “ultimate sacrifice” by losing jobs while some managers were still in place.
Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty said Anglo Irish Bank manager Niall Tuite, who chaired its credit risk committee before the crisis, was now heading its Nama unit. He questioned why Mr Tuite was now in charge of 200 staff on a salary of €220,000 when he had approved controversial loans to Seán FitzPatrick and Seán Quinn.
