Results 7,081-7,100 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: But then you may also be aware that both Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, and I adduced this evidence this morning with Mr. Cardiff again, in the figures that they gave, on the face of it, showed that INBS was insolvent, its regulatory capital would not cover-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Right. Well, if ... if you like, we can look very quickly, Chairman, at ... oh dear, it's in ... it's actually in your core documents as well, the Merrill Lynch presentation to the NTMA. What the heck page ... that's ... sorry, that's page 168, Mr. Beausang.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Of your document, yes, Vol. 1, your document.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. On the top, right-hand side, "INBS has €11.7 billion of loans ... Writedowns of 30% - 60% results in an impairment of €3.6bn - €7bn", right? And then the Goldman Sachs, which is in another document, it's said that regulatory capital by INBS was €1.8 billion. I mean, that's ... is that insolvency or not?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: You see-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. And the very, very last thing, because I really have to ask you this: on page 4 and 5 of your written presentation to us-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: The last paragraph, 5.11.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: The Financial ... the very last paragraph, the Financial Regulator "in fact identified the credit union movement as the most significant prudential risk to financial stability during the relevant period". And, in the next paragraph: This generated a major programme of work for my unit during the relevant period. In practice it focused my area’s attention on credit union risks to...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: That ... that ... that ... hang on, developers are walking into banks, walking out with billions in loans. Banks are bloating their lending-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----but all the consequences-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: No, I ... I ... and-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----and the Financial Regulator identifies credit unions as the main risk.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (24 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Thank you, Mr. Beausang.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (25 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Governor, when you came to be ... to the Central Bank in the autumn of 2009, and contrast then with today, 2015, what is your opinion of the Central Bank's detailed knowledge of the banking institutions now, by contrast with then?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (25 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: So that ignorance, which was given in evidence here in relation to concentration of lending in special sectors, etc., all that is a thing of the past?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (25 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: If I go to your core document, Vol. 1, page 60, and this relates to a summary in the Department of Finance of the Bacon report regarding what became NAMA and we take the second last paragraph on page 60, "Also an Asset Management Agency ... would offer prospects for avoiding many of the shortcomings associated with a continuation of the existing bank[ing]-property developer relationships....

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (25 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: That pejorative term, was it deserved?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (25 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Thank you, Governor. You told Deputy Doherty, if I understood you correctly, that the banks may have been overcapitalised by I think you use a figure of €9 billion and then you made reference to €5 billion of that perhaps being against mortgage arrears, etc. But should that imply two things: one, that the banks should be more forthcoming with writing down unsustainable...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (25 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.