Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Let us refer to something that perhaps the witness will comment on. I participated in the banking inquiry. One of the matters that alarmed us during that inquiry was how financial institutions were issuing loans to their directors, senior managers, spouses of directors and so forth. It is an issue that presented in the courts. We know it was a major risk at the time in the financial system. How is it that, years later, KBC Bank has been fined €1.4 million by the Central Bank for 18 breaches of improper lending to connected parties, which fall into the category of senior directors, senior managers, spouses or shareholders? It happened not once but on 18 occasions. How is that such an abuse of lending was taking place in the bank over that period? We are not talking about extensions of term limits, moderate amounts or changes of small quantities to the loan amounts. These were not student loans, but loans of €5 million, €6 million and so forth to connected parties. How is it that the bank did not have the proper procedures in place and the Central Bank had to ask the bank to conduct an audit in 2013 in this regard and fined the bank €1.4 million?