Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Context Phase

Dr. Donal Donovan:

There is some truth in that, yes. I think the IMF, as I mentioned in my statement, was a creature of its member countries. Clearly, throughout much of the world in the period over the past 20 years, there was a general movement towards deregulation of financial markets and elsewhere. The IMF certainly did not push back in the opposite direction. It tended to support that, as its members countries, who after all do run the IMF and we should not lose sight of that, pushed in that direction. It is well recognised, and we do not have to dwell on it, that went far too far in the case of financial regulation. I think the IMF and its member countries would fully agree with that criticism.