Ms Anne Marie McKiernan:

There are several points that I am keen to address. First, we have published a thematic review - we will shortly publish a second - of our findings in respect of two specific risk areas. One relates to the application of governance requirements on fitness and probity. The second relates to outsourcing. The aim is to call out the types of failings as well as the good practice that we have seen. We want to show the good examples for other credit unions to learn from as well as the types of standards we expect of well-managed financial institutions. These institutions are managing other people's money. This process is in line with our statutory mandate to protect members' funds and the stability of the sector.

I wish to point to one particular financial indicator. It is symptomatic of the overall improved financial resilience of the sector – not to speak of other regulatory requirements. There are now three credit unions that do not meet the 10% regulatory requirement. Obviously, we work extensively with these to mitigate their issues because the 10% regulatory reserve ratio is the loss-absorbing layer and it is an important indicator of the financial resilience of a credit union. The number is down from 52 in 2011, which was a time when crisis conditions were far worse.

We are able to give confidence to the vast majority of credit union members in this regard. In respect of that financial indicator and others credit unions are in a vastly improved position than they were several years ago. This reflects the significant efforts made within credit unions whereby the majority have taken conservative financial decisions to improve their financial positions as well as their attempts to adopt the regulatory framework. In many cases, these attempts have been successful and in some further work remains to be done. This framework has been peer reviewed and deemed appropriate for the nature, scale and complexity of the Irish credit union sector.