Former bank executive ‘did not consider’ how to pay Revenue

A FORMER executive director of National Irish Bank, Barry Seymour, has agreed before the High Court that he had not considered how the Revenue Commissioners would be paid the potential liabilities resulting from DIRT not being deducted from certain accounts in the bank when it should have been.

While he was de facto chief executive of NIB between April 1994 and July 1996, Mr Seymour said he had not considered how the Revenue should be paid such liabilities and had not informed the NIB board that a possible liability to the Revenue was imminent.

The bank’s auditors KPMG had not indicated to himself or the bank that they had any belief that a DIRT theme audit report of early 1995 showed, as the inspectors who investigated the affairs of the bank later found, that there was a widespread problem with bogus non-resident accounts, he said.

Had KPMG indicated there was such a problem, it was unlikely it would have been ignored, he said.

He did not try to establish how many non-resident accounts had been opened in NIB branches when they should not have been, he also agreed. He was also aware from the theme audit report of early 1995 of significant issues of non-compliance within the bank and of failure to deduct DIRT from accounts.

Mr Seymour said he had put in place measures to tackle these and other problems but these did not solve the problems “overnight”.

He also said that 1994, when he was “parachuted” into NIB after the departure of Jim Lacey as chief, was a difficult year. He had inherited several problems, resources were greatly stretched and a report noted difficulties in maintaining controls within the bank. Business plans and improving market share were being demanded of him and there was also the issue of the proposed merger with TSB which caused great concern among NIB staff.

Given all of that, he was aware his appointment was not going to be “a piece of cake”, Mr Seymour said.

Mr Seymour, 67, of Beaumond, Amersham, Bucks, England, was concluding his evidence in the continuing hearing of an application by the Director of Corporate Enforcement to restrain him from involvement in the management of any company.

The case continues before Mr Justice Roderick Murphy.