Banks could have cost taxpayer extra €20bn with misleading loan figures

BANKS could have cost taxpayers an extra €20 billion because of the misleading figures they gave to NAMA about the value of their property loans, the agency’s chief executive has confirmed.

Brendan McDonagh said he will pass on details to the Financial Regulator outlining how banks gave figures of their loan to value ratios which were later found to be significantly different when NAMA carried out its own due diligence.

But he believes the financial institutions did not break any laws because their figures were provided in July 2009 — three months before the Dáil passed laws governing NAMA and its operations.