Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 25 October 2016

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed)

10:00 am

Mr. Donal Rooney:

I can clarify that. There is a board paper from June 2013 in which the matter of discount rate was addressed and discussed by the board. The context for that board paper was NAMA had up to that point used a standard discount rate of 5.5% and the board wanted to reflect on and consider whether it was appropriate to continue using that as its standard discount rate. The board reached a conclusion in that paper that 5.5% was appropriate. A discount rate has two key considerations. It has a company's cost of funds plus a risk premium for any particular transaction and, therefore, the board felt it appropriate to continue with that rate but, critically, the board made a decision as part of that exact same paper that there needed to be flexibility for every transaction to allow a higher discount rate in the event that there are higher risks for a given transaction, which is exactly what occurred in the case of Project Eagle.

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