Regulator ‘cannot ensure survival of banks’

The senior figure in Ireland’s banking watchdog today told a parliamentary committee the Central Bank was aware at the time of the risky behaviour of Irish banks that would later plunge the country into turmoil.

However, Tom O’Connell, assistant director general of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland claimed it was not the role of a banking regulator to prevent banks who made bad decisions from going to the wall.