THERE IS now a compelling need for the Government to fully justify why it is continuing its rescue of Anglo Irish Bank, Fine Gael finance spokesman Michael Noonan has said.
Mr Noonan said Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan must publish a “balance sheet”-type statement to support the argument that Anglo Irish was worth saving.
“The Minister must make a detailed statement where he sets out the cost of rescuing Anglo Irish Bank against the cost of an orderly wind-down. We must be reaching a point now where an orderly wind-down is less expensive than the continuing incremental bailout,” said Mr Noonan.
He was speaking in response to the National Asset Management Agency’s (Nama) announcement that it had completed the transfer of a second batch of loans from Anglo Irish Bank.
Nama paid €2.57 billion for loans originally valued at €6.75 billion on Anglo’s books. The discount amounted to 61.9 per cent, compared to the discount of 55 per cent for the first tranche of €9.3 billion in nominal loans transferred earlier this year.
In all, six tranches of loans with a nominal value of €36 billion will be transferred from Anglo into Nama by the end of 2010.
Yesterday’s transfer was the last of the second tranche from the five financial institutions.
