Professor Patrick Honohan:

These are quantitative credit controls whereby we say "You cannot increase credit by more than X per cent this year" or "You cannot increase it to this sector by more than X per cent this year". Why were they not applied? Nothing much was applied. How effective would they have been? I think they would have been less effective than measures on the loan-to-value ratios, for example. Why? People may dispute this but the experience of the 1970s and early 1980s showed how easy it was for financial systems to get around those old-fashioned regimes of credit ceilings. They said, "Okay, I am not able to give you a loan here but look, here's the form for our Isle of Man branch" and so forth. There were all sorts of ways of getting out of them; well tried and trusted ways. All of these measures can be got around. Probably the reason ---