Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. Liam O'Reilly:
I think "constructive ambiguity" is not a term used by regulators. I think "constructive ambiguity" is a term used by central banks and it relates to the fact that if you are a lender of last resort, you don't want to be saying to banks, "We'll look after you in the end", because if you say that, then banks will behave as if they are going to get the money and take the risks as a result of it. So constructive ambiguity, as far as I'm concerned, is about the ambiguity to ensure that you're not promising anything so don't depend on us to bail you out.
No comments