McKillen has benefited from regulation of banking sector, lawyers argue

Lawyers for the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) today argued that property developer Paddy McKillen has derived substantial benefit from the State's regulation of the financial sector over the past two years.

Mr McKillen is challenging in the Commercial Court the transfer of €211m of his Bank of Ireland loans to the country's so-called "bad bank".

However NAMA chairman Frank Daly has said tha with some €81bn of loans to contend with, the agency's task is "mammoth".

Mr Daly insists it is essential for the agency to only deal with financial institutions and not borrowers who have many incentives to forestall its work.

NAMA's lawyers quoted Mr Daly as they continued to reject Mr McKillen's argument that his loans should not be transfered to the agency.

They say that there could have been no doubt but that Mr McKillen's loans were eligible for transfer as they are development loans.

Furthermore they questioned how he could claim his rights were being violated when he has derived benefit from state regulation of the financial sector over the past two years