Results 6,881-6,900 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: But did you ever consider approaching a person or a number of persons on the board that you knew would not be conflicted, either politically or in relation to property interests, and say "Look, this is really urgent; this needs to be discussed at the highest level on the board"?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: You referred to the ... hang on ... just very briefly ... were you ... what involvement did you have in ... or, if any, in preparation for stress testing?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Who was responsible for creating and updating the scenarios?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: And do you know if external advice from consultants or from European system of central banks or the International Monetary Fund ... was there an involvement of those in the drawing up of the model?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: And last point, Chairman. You refer to the ... the ... the crises and the crashes in a number of ... many countries, even in the Nordic countries in Finland and Sweden and that. Did ... did you ... and then what happened in Ireland in some senses was quite repetitive of what happened there. Did you ever try ... or your group of 60 economists try, in any really structured way, to learn the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Thank you.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Mr. O'Reilly, what role did the regulator undertake in analysing the financial accounts of the banks?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: What was the nature of that information?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Was the concentration of credit on ... in property, and was the extent of individual customers' borrowing included?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: The chief executive of NAMA, Brendan McDonagh, in evidence, said that they took over 772 debtors' loans, which totalled €74 billion, and within that, 12 of those had over €1 billion each, and that 12 had €22.2 billion between them. A further 133 borrowers took between €100 million and €999 million, each having a total of €16 billion. Why didn't that...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: But, pardon me, Mr. O'Reilly, would a child regulator not see the direction and the danger in which this was tending? This ... this was ... we haven't time to give the figures again, but if we had the figures during the three or four years of your tenure, and the three ... two or three years after, the ... the lending, as a witness here, Bill Black, said, was growing like crazy.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: How could it not be-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: And, Mr. O'Reilly, you did ... in page 3 of your written statement to us you mentioned the principle-based regime, and financial institutions committing fully to a culture of integrity, and that the main method of asserting influence over the banks was moral suasion. And Senator O'Keeffe raised and pressed you on this already. But, in view of the shocking banking scandals, whereas ......

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. O'Reilly, their profits were increasing hand over fist during the time you were there and after.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: They were after maximisation of profits. So that ... what-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, but-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: And, Mr. O'Reilly, as an experienced banker, you saw, as well, the Nordic collapse in the '80s and '90s, for example, and many other banking collapses, as a result of excessive property lending. Was the problem that you were gentleman regulators, really, depending on the banks to observe the ... the Marquis of Queensberry rules, but you weren't dealing with gentleman bankers, you were...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Would that be a fair analogy, perhaps?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Would the light-touch regulation be explained by another theory that has been raised, and I'll put it to you, Mr. O'Reilly, that following the massive deregulation of the international financial industry, starting with the Thatcher-Reagan period in the 80s, and then, according to a witness here, Bill Black, massively intensified by the Clinton regime, that the scale of the financial industry...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay, and can I further develop this point a little bit, Mr. O'Reilly? In his book, called Ship of Fools, the ... I think he is now deputy editor of The Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole, quoted the Industrial Development Authority, the IDA, referring to a flexible and business focused tax and regulatory system in Ireland, and then quotes directly the IDA as follows: In 1998, the Regulator...