Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. Brian Goggin:
I think you actually would need to look behind what was in property and construction. Property and construction, I think, as you indicated, was €38 billion. 65% of that was in investment property, property that was generating a contracted rental flow and, you know, stood on its own feet. Of the €38 billion, €13 billion was in land and development. And, even again, I think you'd need to look behind that. €5.4 billion of that €13 billion was in land bank. I think that is where the real problem was - in land bank, but it's interesting in terms of just looking at that aspect of the risk portfolio. Pricewaterhouse conducted a review for the Financial Regulator and it looked at the top 30 land bank transactions in the period 2005 to 2007. To reinforce Bank of Ireland's relative conservatism, Bank of Ireland's share of those 30 largest land bank transactions was 3.5%. I'm not excusing the fact that Bank of Ireland got into difficulty and required assistance. I mean that's a matter of record. I think it is important that I put your question and the nature of the particular risk segment that caused the greatest difficulty in the overall context of a pretty broadly based and diversified bank.