Commission to rule on Anglo plan

THE European Commission says it may rule on the Anglo Irish Bank restructuring plan by the end of the year.

It received the completely revised plan for the nationalised bank two weeks ago, at the end of October, EU Competition spokesperson Amelia Torres confirmed.

The Government needs EU approval for their plans for the break-up of the bank that includes retaining deposits in a “good bank” for a number of years.

Anglo Irish has received €€23 billion of taxpayers money in state aid over the past two years and the Commission will study the plan to ensure this does not give it an unfair advantage over other banks.

A number or plans have been submitted by the Government, but each time as the situation at Anglo was revealed to be worse than expected they had to be revised.

Initally the Government wanted to retain part of the bank as a going concern, something Brussels advised against.

Then finally in September Finance Minister Brian Lenihan revealed the plan to break it into two sections with one holding the bad loans, but with both sections ultimately wound down.

Competition cases such as this one normally take months for the Commission to rule on, but Mr Torres said they hoped to have work on it completed over the next six weeks or so.