NAMA architect questions agency role

THE economist who invented the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has questioned why the agency has become preoccupied with recouping cash abroad rather than cleaning up the mess left by developers at home.

Peter Bacon, who was asked by former Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, to recommend a solution to the banks’ bad loan, solvency and liquidity problems, recommended the establishment of an asset management agency.

However, speaking on RTE television last night, he described it as little more than a national debt collection agency.

“It hasn’t grappled with those developments that clearly will never be viable ... It’s difficult to know why its being implemented in this way.”

It emerged last night that the country’s banks have failed so far to hand over due diligence, the background paperwork, on €17 billion of loans.

The majority of the assets are here in Ireland (61%), with 32% in Britain and the North, and the remaining 7% around the rest of the world.