FitzPatrick spoke of close monitoring in radio interview

JUST two months before former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick admitted hiding €87 million in loans from the bank, he spoke of how closely the financial regulator monitored institutions’ largest loans.

“He gets all the information he wishes to get from us,” Mr Fitzpatrick told RTÉ’s Marian Finucane Programme in October, “in relation to lending, in relation to our liquidity and in relation to our deposits and everything. He comes in and does internal audits. He looks at the top 20 or 40 loans, he gets information about various ratios, all of that, and Central Bank will also get that type of information if required as well. That is every quarter and any time they want to make visits to all of the banks.”

Mr FitzPatrick was asked if it would be appropriate that the Government had someone on banks’ credit committees.