The board of Irish Life and Permanent (IL&P) is holding an emergency meeting tonight over its decision to deposit €7 billion in Anglo Irish Bank last September to boost its deposit book.
The meeting follows lunchtime talks today between Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and IL&P chief executive Denis Casey and its chairwoman, Gillian Bowler.
Earlier today, the Green Party leader John Gormley told the Dáil the €7 billion deposit - made through Irish Life Investment Managers, and thus classified as a customer deposit, rather than a bank deposit - must "also result in resignations".
The declaration came near the end of a four-hour series of statements on the Government's decision to invest €3.5 billion in both Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland.
Irish Life and Permanent's action to deposit money with Anglo as it lost deposits from major corporate clients must "result in resignations", Mr Gormley declared.
"We need a general crackdown on corporate crime in this country. In the US you will see a white collar criminals being led away in handcuffs. I want to see the same happening here," said Mr Gormley. "No blind eye will be turned as long as the Greens are in Government.”
The Government is expected to win a vote on its motion applauding the AIB and BoI's statement this afternoon.
Under the recapitalisation plan, the Government will provide €3.5 billion in core tier one capital for the country's two biggest banks, which will be enough to ensure their future stability, Mr Lenihan told the Dáil.
"The capital to be provided was determined following detailed engagement with the banks themselves and with the benefit of survey information of the bank's loan books, which was conducted on behalf of the Government by PriceWaterhouseCoopers,” the minister told the Dáil. “A careful assessment was made of the potential losses that the banks' face on their loan books in the coming years, taking into account the impact of likely trends in property values and various stress scenarios for the economy.
”While I was criticised in some quarters for taking too long to proceed with a recapitalisation of our major financial institutions, the time taken to assess as accurately as possible the capital requirements of each bank is worthwhile in terms of the assurance that can now be offered markets on the levels of capital in the two largest banks and the fundamental strength of their position in the coming years," he said.
