Banks sold corporate souls during the boom

FROM an Irish perspective the European Central Bank’s decision to leave borrowing rates at their historic low level of 1% following its monthly meeting in Frankfurt would be good news in normal circumstances.

But our circumstances are far from normal. The bad debt write-downs of over €5 billion in bad property and related loans for 2009 earlier in the week provided a further stark reminder about the extent to which Irish banks sold their corporate souls to the property market during the boom.

It’s interesting too how the blame game has started doing the rounds. Sean FizPatrick and Anglo Irish Bank are being blamed for the debacle.