Lenihan: Nyberg report does not blame previous Government
The former Finance Minister and Fianna Fáil TD Brian Lenihan has said he accepts the criticism of the previous Government, as outlined on the report published today into the banking crisis.
The Peter Nyberg report states that the main reason for the financial crash was the unhindered expansion of the property bubble financed by the banks.
It said the problems causing the crisis were the result of domestic Irish decisions, rather than international factors.
The report criticises the Government for its delay on nationalising Anglo Irish Bank.
But Deputy Lenihan said he does not feel the report really puts the blame for the financial crisis on the previous Government.
Mr Lenihan said: "He doesn't actually make much comment about me at all. His main criticism is about the Central Bank, the Financial Regulator and the boards of the banks.
"The build-up of the unsustainability if the Irish banks was practically complete by 2006. That is when the property market turned. We all know that."
The main conclusion of the report was that the Financial Regulator did not have the bottle to bring Anglo Irish Bank to book over risky lending and stop other banks jumping on the bandwagon.
The inquiry into the cause of the country’s banking crisis has found authorities, including the Central Bank, did not understand the dangers of a property boom.
And it found the cause and scale of the €70bn meltdown was homegrown, while worldwide recession has made it worse.
Finnish banking expert Peter Nyberg also shattered claims, put up by former taoiseach Brian Cowen, that the collapse of the US bank Lehman Brothers sparked the Irish crisis.
He said the top bank executives paid little attention to risks they were taking through shockingly large lending and chasing Anglo’s growth rates.
The Government said it would hold a referendum later this year to give Oireachtas committees more power to hold inquiries and demand witnesses answer questions.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said nothing had been done for 10 years “to hold persons, who by reckless greed and whatever else, lack of oversight, went off the rails completely, and the taxpayer has to pay”.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said justice had not only to be done, but to be seen to be done.
“I think it would be proper that those who are personally culpable would be brought before an Oireachtas committee and would answer for what they have done or indeed for their omissions,” the minister said.
The 156-page Nyberg report does not name and shame but attacks a herd mentality from 2003-2009 as Anglo – which is costing €30bn to wind down – was lauded by investors, analysts and ratings agencies as the role model for Irish banking.
Mr Nyberg said there was “no silver bullet” which sparked the crisis.
“Some people were quite devastated by what had happened, had lost their reputations, had lost money,” the former International Monetary Fund official said.
“But there were also people who still thought that everything would have been fine if just Lehman wouldn’t have happened.”
Mr Nyberg said that the Irish crisis was exceptional as large sections of society let the good times roll until the very last minute.
“Property was the only game in town,” he said, before adding that buying two or three homes was a “no-brainer”.
His damning findings included:
:: An apparent inability or unwillingness among banks to remember that lending is a risk, not a sale.
:: Management and boards did not fully appreciate and were totally unprepared for key risks including lending for developers/speculators.
:: Many banks emphasised and valued loan sales skills above risk and credit analysis.
:: There was a lack of capping on loan size or on total exposure to connected parties or sectors.
:: Nationalised Anglo and Irish Nationwide Building Society were run under lax controls – Anglo lenders commonly ignored their own rules and Irish Nationwide had a sub-standard lending wing with files often badly maintained and deals not reviewed.
