Banking Inquiry: 13 senior bankers must appear at inquiry

More than a dozen of Ireland’s most senior bankers during the boom and bust era — including one of the pioneers of 100% mortgages in this country — have been legally ordered to attend banking inquiry grillings from April.

The 13 individuals were told last night they will be the first witnesses compelled to turn up at the cross-party Oireachtas committee as part of the vital “nexus” stage of its investigation into what caused the economic crash.

The senior officials include: five top bosses from Bank of Ireland in charge before and after the September 2008 crisis; four from AIB; two from Nama; and two from Ulster Bank.

Among the names are current Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher and his predecessor Brian Goggin.

Ex-Ulster Bank chief executive Cormac McCarthy, who is widely seen as one of the pioneers of bringing the 100% mortgage scheme to Ireland in 2005, has also been told to attend.

Among others are current Nama chair and one of the Government’s public interest appointments to Anglo Irish Bank after the crash Frank Daly, ex-AIB chief executive Eugene Sheehy and the bank’s former managing director Donal Forde.

The nexus stage of the inquiry differs from the current context stage as it will specifically question more than 50 people deemed to have been involved in the 2008 crisis and its aftermath