O’Connor: Board wants to make Anglo viable

The head of Anglo Irish Bank says the objective of the company's board is to turn it into a viable, efficient and respected bank.

Donal O'Connor was speaking during an appearance at the Oireachtas Finance Committee today.

Anglo recently reported losses of €4bn for a six-month period due to massive bad loans and may have to write off another €3.5bn by the end of the financial year.

Finance Minister Brian Cowen has promised to make up the €4bn loss from taxpayers' money and has vowed to whatever it takes to protect the bank into the future.

Mr O'Connor said today that the Government had a number of options in relation to Anglo, including retaining it as a State-owned bank, selling it back to the private sector or merging it with another banking group.