ECB: Do not pay too much on NAMA

THE European Central Bank has starkly warned the Government not to pay over the odds for the €90 billion of property loans it will buy from the banks.

The ECB said that while the proposed National Asset Management Agency should restore confidence to the banking system, its success would rest on getting the valuations right.

It came as Finance Minister Brian Lenihan staunchly defended the NAMA plan at an occasionally heated meeting of the cross-party Oireachtas Committee on Finance.