Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 29 June 2017

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Capital Investment: European Investment Bank

10:00 am

Mr. Andrew McDowell:

At this point, the bank and board of directors are not asking member states to consider additional cash contributions to the bank. It may be there will be other ways to replace UK share capital. The bank has reserves that may be reclassified as paid-in capital. There are a number of other mechanisms that we are considering. The Acting Chairman is correct in the sense that ultimately it is going to require a decision of the board of governors of the bank on the bank's capital structure to ensure it can continue to do its job in the 27 member states after Brexit. We certainly feel it would be good to indicate sooner rather than later to the financial markets there is a political will to take those decisions.