€7bn just a fraction of the taxpayers’ final bill for Anglo

There is one thing the pair of bankers on the Anglo tapes said we can all agree with: a €7bn temporary bill to bailout the bank sounds a lot better than the reality.

If the Central Bank had got away with the amount “pulled out of the arse” of Anglo’s delegation, we would be enthralled with the recordings today. The €7bn was supposed to deal with its liquidity issue, a cash flow lending stream to keep the bank trading when banks would not share funds with each other.

As it happens, Anglo found the money in an overnight facility from Irish Life and Permanent, which has since been the subject of a criminal investigation. But what emerged later was that there was an even more chronic solvency issue at the bank. Anglo was doomed.