Michael Fingleton: The banker who built, and broke, Irish Nationwide

The banker, who died on Sunday aged 88, steered the lender to a €16bn peak before its collapse which cost taxpayers €5.4bn

Michael Fingleton at the official opening of Irish Nationwide's new headquarters in 1997. Archive picture: Jason Clarke

For almost four decades, Michael Fingleton was one of the most recognisable figures in Irish finance, having built a tiny lender with a single branch into a property-fuelled powerhouse with a peak balance sheet of €16bn. He ultimately presided over its collapse, costing the taxpayer €5.4bn.

In the final years of the property boom, he oversaw a huge rise in Irish Nationwide’s loan book, more than doubling development and commercial loans. When those loans were eventually transferred to Nama, the agency judged that only about 16% of an €8.7bn book was likely to be repaid.