MINISTER FOR Finance Michael Noonan has referred the Nyberg report into the banking crisis to the Garda, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
This is the first time a report on banking practices in all the guaranteed lenders has been submitted to the Garda, the DPP and the ODCE. A Department of Finance spokesman confirmed the report had been referred on the advice of the Attorney General. The Minister received the final report from the Nyberg commission of investigation on March 22nd and referred it to the Attorney General.
The commission, led by the former senior Finnish civil servant Peter Nyberg, spent six months investigating the banking crisis, examining Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society in particular. Mr Nyberg was asked to investigate corporate governance and risk management at the six Government-guaranteed institutions from January 1st, 2003, to January 15th, 2009, when the decision to nationalise Anglo was taken.
The inquiry focused closely on lending practices at Anglo and Irish Nationwide to examine why they incurred much heavier losses.
Mr Nyberg did not name any individuals in his report, which was commissioned by former minister for finance Brian Lenihan.
It followed two reports into the causes of the crisis last year by Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan and banking experts Klaus Regling and Max Watson.
The Central Bank plans to examine bank directors’ records in the run-up to the crisis and, if necessary, launch formal investigations to suspend or prohibit individuals from involvement with finance companies. The head of financial regulation
Matthew Elderfield said on Thursday that he would write to bank boards to give directors an opportunity to decide whether they wanted to go through that examination process.
The ODCE and the Garda are already investigating issues relating to Anglo including:
● the €7 billion deposits between the bank and Irish Life and Permanent which made Anglo look healthier than it actually was over its September 2008 year end;
● the secret share deal in which it made loans of €451 million to 10 customers to buy a 10 per cent stake held by Seán Quinn;
● the concealment of loans to former chairman Seán FitzPatrick over an eight-year period;
● an €8 million loan given to a director, Willie McAteer, to prevent his Anglo shares being sold on September 29th, 2008; and
● the content of financial and public statements in 2008.
