Mr. Ross Maguire:

In the United States shortly after Lehman Brothers collapsed the AIG group, from recollection, required enormous support because it had insured against banking losses.

The initial proposal was for a State-backed fund but the Minister for Finance seems to have moved away from the idea now. If it is a private fund then the question is whether it would go to the taxpayer in the event of a default. The Senator made the interesting point that these insurers are only as good as their resources allow them to be. Fundamentally, this is about undermining a credit restraint policy being initiated by the Central Bank.