Vested interests may yet hinder probe

THE smoking gun has been found in the debris of Anglo Irish Bank.

The publication yesterday of the secret recordings from within the bank has firmed up what many had long suspected — that Anglo had run rings around those charged with regulating them and protecting the State’s finances.

The conversation between two top executives in the bank, John Bowe and Peter Fitzgerald, took place less than a fortnight before the bank guarantee in Sept 2008, and concerned the bank’s efforts to extract money from the exchequer to save the bank.