Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

But, Senator, it's quite a good point and we could talk about it for a long time. I'm not too certain about that, and I'll tell you why, for a number of reasons. One of the reasons for the ... I would suggest that the banks here went very loose with their credit policy, were a number of factors, but one certainly was competition, and competition not just from the ... what we call the Irish banks but from outside as well. And remember that, say, the Royal Bank of Scotland was involved here through their wholly-owned subsidiary. The Bank of Scotland was also involved here, Rabo was also involved here. And incidentally ... but they were regulated from their home base, and they ... Royal Bank of Scotland on their Irish operation, I read in the very recent past - you can correct me if I'm wrong - even though they never have announced fully the figures, have ... I think they've estimated that they lost something in the order of ... it's many, many billions, I've a figure ... I've ideas in the 20, in excess of 20. Bank of Scotland probably the same. Rabo who took over the ACC, very, very big figures as well. And the regulator in their home jurisdiction didn't spot this collapse in the Irish economy as well, and a massive credit growth. So I am not ... I can argue, I ... we can debate it, and you might be correct in some things could be put in place, but I actually don't see it like that because it was missed by there. And by the way, in the United States, they missed AIG, Bear Sterns, Wachovia and a few others as well, you know what I mean?