Mr. Padraic Kissane:

No, the only reason that brokers were mentioned in relation to KBC was that its business was done predominantly through brokers. There is an issue of keeping the broker informed. Ironically in its case, the agreements between the brokers and KBC included the following clause, which I myself signed up to:

The intermediary shall not, without the consent of the lender, print or publish any advertisement or circular referring to the lender or any of its services and not make any promises or representations in relation to the services, otherwise than by reference to published material obtained by the lender.

Then KBC sent me what it called a "flyer", although it was not a flyer, it was a communication. It was sent in direct opposition to a move which Dankse bank had just made. I find it astonishing that most of the people who are before the committee here were not in the banks when this happened but they seem to have forgotten everything that went before them. The broker game was the big game in town but for KBC especially, it would have provided about 90% of its business.