Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Dargan Fitzgerald:

Thank you. Well, first of all, to understand that the purpose of the regulator in bringing up such items is, as I previously mentioned, quite different from the external auditor's role and they very much approach their work from different angles. The regulator, as I understand it, carries out a very detailed body of work to check that the detailed operation of procedures, which they, as regulator, feel are important in relation to the functioning of the regulated entity, that those are carried out appropriately, and these recommendations are, therefore, very very detailed in that regard. When you mention stress testing, I think now that I see your reference, I imagine that's in relation to the stress testing of the repayment capacity of an individual borrower, I think that's probably what's referred to. The answer I gave was at a level of the totality of loans and please excuse me if I misunderstood your question. So I would think in relation to that comment on stress testing, that will not have a direct correspondence with any external audit tests as such, except to the following extent: that as I previously mentioned, we always, investigating ... in reviewing a loan and discussing it with management, we look to see whether there is evidence of impairment of the loan, including any financial distress of the borrower, and so that may have been relevant.

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