Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Cyril Roux:

Okay. Well, up until the Central Bank supervisory and enforcement Act of August 2013, as I said, the maximum fine was €5 million. Only breaches that have happened since August 2013 can be punished by a bigger penalty, which goes up to 10% of turnover. But, as you mentioned, elsewhere there are much, much bigger penalties and it is baffling to me, although you could extract billions, tens of billions, hundreds of billions, you know, there is still wrongdoing committed. So that's really incredible that you have ... take the biggest French bank being fined or entering its settlement with the US authorities for I think something like $9 billion and then saying subsequently that it won't affect their dividend. So how much money do you need to extract? It's just ... it seems ... it seems almost ... it's never enough to deter, it seems. It's just amazing. So I think your question is well posed in saying, well, then you have to go into individual responsibility and white-collar crime. But the white-collar crime, I think that's an issue that, you know, I would ... certainly the Governor spoke about that not long ago. But it's something that is, you know, partially beyond me. It's how in Ireland white-collar crime is being punished. It's a good question for the law, the courts, the guards, the DPP, the ODCE. It's-----

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