Report exposes Financial Regulator’s ‘shortcomings’

THE country’s financial watchdog expects to announce its new director of financial supervision within the next three weeks.

He will replace Patrick Neary, forced to resign last January following claims that staff at the Regulator’s office knew since January 2008 that the disgraced chairman of Anglo Irish Bank Seán FitzPatrick had been transferring loans of up to €87 million off the bank’s book to conceal them from shareholders.

News of the appointment comes as the Financial Regulator was left red-faced yesterday by the leaking of a confidential report it commissioned into its internal operations which was carried out by consultancy group, Mazars.