Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 6 May 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. Richie Boucher:
Deputy ... I have read the documents, my recollection is that the documents .. well they are from early 2006. I'd come into the position of chief executive retail there was certain issues about the volume of work to have done in legal services division which is an internal division in the bank and in particular, not more related to kind of business type loans. I think the documentation also says that I said at the second meeting that I wanted a much higher proportion of that legal work to be done externally because I felt it could be done to a higher standard and where people could be held more accountable because you were paying them to do that. That was done and that is reflected in the fact that, going back to one of the Chairman's and some of earlier questions about NAMA transfers. The level of discounts that we had for documentation were minimal. I think also in a question of ... the managers not tolerating excesses on accounts and that I think also in one of the disclosed documents provided in the core document, I think it's B4 page 25, its noted from 2008 there had been a significant improvement and that I had taken responsibility as chief executive in retail and I brought in skills from other banks which brought in a higher disciplinary process in terms of managers adhering to exceptions, training, etc. So we did make quite a lot of progress but we should have made more.