IRELAND’S member of the European Court of Auditors Kevin Cardiff was in charge of the Department of Finance unit that had oversight of banks on that fateful, generation-defining and expensive night — September 29th/30th 2008, “guarantee night” as it has become known.

Former taoiseach Brian Cowen “already had a preference” for a “broad” bank guarantee before the infamous September 29, 2008, meeting which led to the multi-billion euro deal — and overruled then finance minister Brian Lenihan’s concerns.

 

Anglo Irish Bank asked Bank of Ireland to take it over while the Central Bank also asked BoI to consider buying Irish Life and Permanent in the hours before the September 2008 bank guarantee.

The mystery over why Anglo and Irish Nationwide were included in the blanket bank guarantee deepened after another senior banker said yesterday that he advised the Government not to include the stricken firms in the deal.

The chief executive of AIB when the recession hit has said his €2.4m total annual pay package during the era was peer-reviewed and he never asked for a pay rise.

Dermot Gleeson came before the banking inquiry not to make excuses but to provide explanations.

The head of the Banking Inquiry Ciaran Lynch says he does not anticipate any resistance to compellability orders sent to more than a dozen senior witnesses.

More than a dozen of Ireland’s most senior bankers during the boom and bust era — including one of the pioneers of 100% mortgages in this country — have been legally ordered to attend banking inquiry grillings from April.

The Government is still refusing to reveal any information on how many former AIB directors have agreed to return their six-figure pensions to the State.

Even though AIB is still loss-making, it hopes to make a pre-provision profit in 2014, its chairman David Hodgkinson told shareholders at yesterday’s AGM.

More than 160 retired bankers are receiving pensions above €100,000 from bailed-out institutions.

Last Saturday, Nov 24, over 20,000 people turned up to a magnificent pre-budget anti-austerity demonstration in Dublin.

Michael Clifford says John Bruton’s call to avoid scapegoating individuals is a bit rich considering the elite has made no gesture of reparation to the public

Retired bankers with massive pensions of more than €100,000 could see their payments slashed by up to 40% under proposed changes to the law.

Using taxpayers’ money to bring pension funds of bankers up to standard was a regrettable but essential move in reviving the economy, Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has said.

Irish Life’s chief executive is being paid €586,000 a year, breaking the Government’s own salary cap rules, while his former AIB counterpart is sitting on a €10.5m pension pot.

The revelations this week of what the top brass at banks get in their pensions sparked outrage. But the banks should not be swayed by public anger into pursuing former executives for recovery of funds lost, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Two senior cabinet ministers are calling on former senior executives at the country's banks to give back some of their pensions.

Bank staff are demanding a fairer system when it comes to their pay and conditions after a number of revelations about the sector.

It is believed that Bank of Ireland will not be following AIB’s lead and writing to former executives asking them to surrender part of their pensions.

A Fine Gael TD is disagreeing with the Taoiseach and Finance Minister on the issue of bank pensions.

The former head of Bank of Ireland has defended levels of pension payments to retired bank chiefs today.

The former head of AIB, Eugene Sheehy, has agreed to take a cut in his pension.

BANKERS have spent a good portion of the last couple of years trying to convince a jaded populace that they have seen the error of their avaricious ways, but their recent conduct belies any feeble attempts at faux humility.

The Government is permitting “one rule for the rich and another for the rest” by rubber-stamping “extremely generous compensation packages” for former bosses, the country’s main banking union has claimed.

AIB is asking it's former directors to consider taking a voluntary cut to their pensions.

A senior cabinet minister has said he is not at all happy with claims that state money was used to fund the pension of a former chief executive of AIB.

The Government cannot legally reduce the salaries of bankers who were awarded contracts before it came to power, the Minister for Finance has insisted.

Former Green Party senator Dan Boyle has said questions need to be answered about the signing of the bank guarantee in 2008.

DERMOT McCARTHY is around long enough to know that this week’s controversy about the extraordinary pension and pay-off he received in July will pass.

THE poster boys for our financial crisis have been well established: Seánie Fitz, ‘Fingers’ Fingleton, Eugene Sheehy, Patrick Neary, Bertie Ahern, Charlie McCreevy, Brian Cowen.

OFFICIALLY, the outgoing managing director of AIB Colm Doherty will not be entitled to any “golden handshake” after this week’s announcement of his resignation as head of the country’s largest bank.

AIB Bank's pay bill for its board and management hit €3.6m last year including almost €900,000 for former chief executive Eugene Sheehy.

Dublin: AIB and Bank of Ireland warned the Government that the price banks could have to pay to use the state’s guarantee may be so big it would run the risk of “destabilising the entire bank system”.

TRUE to form, Eugene Sheehy called it as he saw it when he went before an Oireachtas committee on Tuesday.

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan has warned the Government will use its powers under NAMA to ensure banks start lending to cash strapped businesses.

AIB’s outgoing chief executive has poured cold water on the bank simply selling off overseas divisions in order to raise further funds for the group.

THE musical chairs in and around Allied Irish Banks became clearer yesterday after it and the Government reached agreement on its new management appointees.

AIB has increased its bad debt charge from €4.3 billion to €5.3bn for 2009.

AIB's Public Interest Director Dick Spring has said Colm Doherty emerged as the best candidate for

Allied Irish Bank bowed to Government pressure today agreeing not to exceed a €500,000 salary cap for its new chief.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan tonight threw out plans by Allied Irish Banks to pay its new chief a salary €133,000 above a Government-imposed pay cap.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan today insisted he has not agreed a wage deal for the new Allied Irish Bank chief in breach of a Government salary cap for bankers.