WATCH: Retired financial regulator appears before Banking Inquiry

The man responsible for regulating Ireland's financial sector in the run-up to the bank guarantee is appearing before the Banking Inquiry today.

Lifelong civil servant Patrick Neary – who receives an annual pension of €114,000 - is expected to face some robust questioning about his time as the financial regulator as he takes questions for an entire day.

He was the prudential director at the Financial Regulator until 2005, when he was appointed CEO.

It was under his tenure that the massive lending at the major banks reached its peak - eventually culminating in the blanket guarantee of September 2008.

Such was the damage to the Financial Regulator's reputation that Neary retired within days of Anglo being nationalised in 2009.

Last week, the former head of the Central Bank John Hurley told the Banking Inquiry that he had virtually no power to regulate the banks - and that the health of the sector was realistically the responsibility of Mr Neary.