Mr. Donal Forde:

Okay, I'm ... Let me first say that this wouldn't be my direct area of responsibility but my understand ... I don't believe that's a regulatory constraint. I don't believe there was any regulatory constraint on loan to deposit. I may be wrong on that but that's my belief. What was happening here was that the market was putting a strong focus on the loan-to-deposit ratio in different institutions, but, again, this changing methodology in the marketplace was an issue and that rather than the simplicity of this customer loans and totality over customer deposits, the market was looking for a more informed ratio, where the value of long-term deposits was recognised or the saleability or liquidity of assets was recognised in the formula and that's what this adjusted loan-to-deposit ratio achieves.

So this isn't a regulatory matter, I don't think, Senator. This is a matter of the way in which AIB presents a picture of itself to the marketplace. The marketplace was looking for something that was more nuanced and that's what was proposed.