NTMA kept out of room on guarantee night

A state group set up to protect public funds was kept out of the room on guarantee night despite being completely opposed to a blanket bank protection and warning Anglo was “an accident waiting to happen” for over a year.

Two senior NTMA officials revealed the situation as the bank inquiry was told ex-finance minister Brian Lenihan was also “suspicious” of banks’ health.

Then NTMA director and current Nama chair Brendan McDonagh told the cross-party inquiry his group was “always sceptical” about Anglo as it was “just property lending, had rapid growth and we just couldn’t understand the business model”.