Professor Patrick Honohan:

You are asking me a very specific legal question. Let me answer it in this way, and we can get more detail if you need it. The Governor had extensive powers to intervene in what the Financial Regulator was doing if he considered it necessary. He regarded that as a type of nuclear option and he never saw any reason to suspect that the Financial Regulator was not doing its job. Although he had last resort powers, they were not day-to-day powers.