Banks to be asked to help pay for inquiry

Banks are to be asked to cough up some of the cost of running the banking inquiry which will examine decisions and actions of some of their top executives in the run up to the €440bn state guarantee.

The inquiry may be in line for another boost to its work, with the ECB indicating it will review its policy of withholding a letter sent to former finance minister, Brian Lenihan, on the night before Ireland entered into the EU-IMF bailout.

Despite pressure from the European ombudsman, the ECB has previously refused to release the November 2010 correspondence which is believed to have forced the Government into accepting the bailout without burning the banks’ senior bondholders.