Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Cormac McCarthy:

It's impossible to make that comparison, Deputy. The reason for that is Ulster Bank is not ... was not a quoted public company so, therefore, we had no capital base or no foreign businesses to sell, as some of the Irish businesses did, to generate capital. Our capital buffer at the start was less than it was, so if you look at the capital that was injected into the Irish banks, versus the provisions they made, there's a substantial difference. Ulster Bank's capital versus provisions is essentially one-for-one. We had no access to NAMA, so we had to make provisions on the basis of the lowest point in the market. I have no wish, Deputy, to underestimate the significance of this loan-----