Dr. Mark Cassidy:

It is clearly in a far better position than it was in 2006 or 2007 in many respects. Irish banks have significantly reduced their loan books. Their lending ratios have improved significantly. Their capital ratios are now significantly stronger and more robust than they were before the crisis. We also have a much more intrusive supervisory system than we had before the crisis. The Central Bank has taken a number of actions in addition to more intrusive supervision. The purpose of the mortgage market measures is to prevent banks from lending too much in the way they did in the early 2000s and to prevent borrowers and households becoming over-indebted in the same way they did then. In addition to these tools, the Central Bank has other macro-prudential tools now available to it, which we have already deployed. These are the capital requirements we impose on the banks, the ultimate objective of which is to safeguard the stability of the financial system as a whole. In recent years, we have introduced two capital buffers. One is a countercyclical capital buffer and one is a buffer for large systemically important institutions. Both of these serve to increase the stability of the particular banks. The banking system is in a much safer position and we have introduced measures to ensure this will remain the case.

While Brexit will have a severe overall economic impact and some temporary market dislocation cannot be ruled out, overall the risk to the financial system as a result of Brexit is manageable but it is something we are monitoring very carefully within the bank.