Talks ongoing on how to cut Anglo wind-up cost

TECHNICAL discussions are ongoing with the European Commission and the European Central Bank to explore ways of reducing the cost of winding up Anglo Irish Bank.

Spokespersons for the European Commission and the Department of Finance confirmed that talks were ongoing at a technical level on the subject. It is estimated that it will cost Irish taxpayers at least €47bn over the next 10 years.

While the bank is now defunct and the country has undertaken to repay unsecured, unguaranteed bondholders, the system of promissory notes established to recapitalise the bank is proving to be very complex. Much of the bonds are now owned by the European Central Bank that is currently providing unlimited liquidity to Irish banks although they have refused to commit to doing this on a long-term basis.