Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 7 May 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. Michael Torpey:
In relation to Ulster Bank, I would say it did not drive the quality of underwriting down, because the credit stream within Ulster Bank and extending into RBS Group, was entirely independent of the business and entirely independent of the funding of the balance sheet. I think the availability of liquidity, the relatively easy availability of liquidity, did undoubtedly influence the banking system and while any individual bank, and particularly a challenger bank, can seek to grow its market share, there is a reasonable question to be asked as to what is the impact if all banks have that access to liquidity and it drives up the scale of borrowing by all banks across the system.
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