Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Context Phase

Mr. Simon Carswell:

In terms of the structure of the Central Bank as established, one of its specific roles, which gives an idea of the priorities within the new regulatory regime, was that of consumer director as a member of the board of the authority. However, it did not have a prudential director as a statutory member of the board, which says more about the emphasis that was on the consumer. As emerged from the crisis, there should have been more focus on the prudential aspects of the financial system. Everybody will remember the advertisement in which the phrase "I don't know what a tracker mortgage is" was used. A more appropriate phrase might have been "I don't how safe my money is and I don't know how safe these banks are."