Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 30 July 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Fintan Drury:

-----and the notion that, you know, any question about whether or not we were ... we were active as ... as a committee. I mean, I can remember a number of examples - one, in particular, where, I think it was around 2000 ... I beg your pardon, 2005-2006, maybe ... it could have been as early as 2004, I had concerns about the amount of lending going into the hotel and leisure sector. And we had, you know, quite a significant amount of lending in that sector and there was already a slowdown starting to percolate through to ... because, obviously, a hospitality sector tends to be the first to feel the sense of a cold wind. And I remember raising that at committee and I remember discussing it with Pat Whelan who was the ... at that time, the head of risk and, as would have happened with Pat Whelan as head of risk, about a week later he rang me and asked me to come in and he had done a really thorough analysis of the area. He had gone back and looked through everything and he had some issues to raise and there was progress made in respect of that over the following number of months. I remember as well that, even though trading was a very small part of Anglo's portfolio of work, we had a problem with a trader on one occasion who had gone past his limits. And there was a discussion about it and myself and a number of the other non-execs were asked our view and we said, "Well, look, you know, he needs to be given a warning", and it wasn't ... now, it wasn't ... he hadn't dramatically overshot his limits but, again, when ... at the next meeting ... or, I beg your pardon, not the next meeting, but within a number of months, it had happened again, and we made a decision at committee that-----

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