Results 4,261-4,280 of 7,082 for speaker:John Paul Phelan

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay, okay, that's fair enough. I think you've answered it. I want to refer to a report which was published in The Sunday Business Poston 15 March 2015, where it showed that you owed Anglo Irish Bank €1.5 billion. In hindsight, do you think - or your businesses I should say - do you think, firstly, was it sensible for a bank to have so much loaned to a particular business?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: But from a business point of view then, to put it the other way, was it good business practice for your businesses to have their borrowings so concentrated in one individual institution? I know you may have other loans in other institutions, but €1.5 billion in that one, from a business perspective, do you regret that?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: So you'd do it again if you had it back again?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. Briefly, then, in relation to another point that was raised by Senator Barrett, where you spoke about inexperienced developers. I think ... I can't remember what page it was. You said that there clearly was too much debt, too freely available and too many borrowers that led to a glut of inexperienced developers, many of whom traded in a short-term horizon. You've answered what you...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: I understand the point you're making, and then this is my last little follow-up on this, but it would take a lot of those operators to have a borrowing of €1.5 billion, such as your firms had from Anglo?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Some of them may have had, but I'm not ... you spoke about the smaller operators specifically, I think, earlier on, and-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Late?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Fair enough, okay. Can I ask ... I've a number of questions that I must put to you. Based on your dealings with the Irish banks in the pre-crisis period, did you get the general impression that maintaining and growing market share was a dominant driver in lending practices? And did you observe increasing competition between them for business with you and your businesses?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. Banks were under increasing pressure due to interbank competition to offer incentives such as - and we've mentioned a few of them before - non-recourse loans, interest-only and roll-up ones as well. In your experience, were such practices common among the banks in Ireland? And did the situation differ greatly from practices in banks in other jurisdictions?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Those types of incentives that I mentioned there, non-recourse, interest-only, roll-up, lower interest rate margins, interest holiday periods, those?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. As the profile of your own businesses or business grew, and the size of your portfolio grew, did you observe a relaxation in lending criteria?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. NAMA applied a discount of 5.25% to the long-term value of acquired properties to cover due diligence, which was 0.25% and enforcement at 5%. In your dealings with the Irish banks, how would you rate the extent to which the banks sought robust legal documentation? And was reliance on solicitors' undertakings commonplace or rare?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Okay. Thank you.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, Mr. Merriman.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: Firstly, I want to reference a document that Senator D'Arcy just spoke about earlier, Vol. 1, page 126, minutes of a board meeting, 22 July 2005. The heading at the top is, "Section 3: Key Business Drivers Behind the Plan" and, specifically, the fourth point there, which is as follows, "Tracker mortgages will account for an increasing proportion of business - rising from 5% today to 60% by...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: It isn't my one anyway.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)

John Paul Phelan: In relation to that, were you yourself aware of the risks that, you know, the tracker mortgage rate could pose for the institution? And, actually, as a board member, was it ever discussed really in-depth at board level in the EBS?