Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. David Duffy:
I think the answer to that, Deputy, is that of the €20 billion of loans there was a lot of overseas UK property, which was non-core to our activity at the end of the day. There was some miscellaneous property portfolios around this country which we probably would have sold, and there was some which, in the benefit of hindsight, if we'd seen the speed of the recovery, you might keep. So there's no explicit black and white answer, it's a combination of the above. But I think the significant portion of that portfolio would have been for sale in any case. It has allowed us, additionally, create the space in our capital structure to lend at the levels which we're seeing today, which is new lending stimulating the economy, and more valuable therefore, so a little bit of positive comes out of it in any case.
No comments