Results 341-360 of 4,168 for speaker:Susan O'Keeffe

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: When Mr. Richie Boucher was here giving evidence he talked about this meeting on 7 September, that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss potential liquidity support for INBS. Now you say that no such liquidity support - I think you say that in your opening statement - was required, so why was that meeting being held, do you believe, at that point?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Mr. Walsh, I'm sorry again to interrupt but I'm just looking at the time, and what I am asking really is the liquidity question at that time for INBS. Is it ... are you stating here that INBS was ... did ... had no liquidity difficulties in September 2008?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: No, I'm not missing. I do understand that.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: But why then when Goldman Sachs met with various members of the Department of Finance ... why then were they saying that for INBS, at your current rate, you would have a liquidity problem within ... your limit was within 11 days but in real danger of acceleration?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: And also the Government was effectively pulling together a huge operation to rescue INBS - not other institutions but INBS. So how does that square with you saying, "We were liquid"?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: But Moody's, when it was down ... in the downgrade, said that the funding of INBS "is very heavily reliant on financial instruments (circa €7 bn at [the] end of 2007) making it vulnerable to the dislocation in financial markets". So wasn't the fact that you were increasingly reliant on financial instruments ... was that not causing a huge problem for you at that point?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Finally-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Yes. Finally, was it appropriate with you, as chair, that by September 2008, 80% of the loan book of INBS was in commercial property and 81% of its land and development exposure was in speculative property activity? That happened under your watch. Was that appropriate?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Thank you, Chair.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Thank you. I'd just like to follow on. The Financial Regulator first, well, wrote to you in December '04 noting its concerns about resources at senior level and so on. Are you saying ... you've just given us the explanation as to why nobody might have been added in 2007, because there were negotiations with banks. Are you saying now that that was the same in 2004 and this was a consistent...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: The facts are that you didn't, that the resources were not put in.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: And no head of commercial lending either-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: -----according to the regulator.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: I know, but the point is that ... the point is that the regulator was still concerned about that in March 2008. Can I ask you, the Building Societies Act of 1989, as far as I understand it, says that the retirement age of any director is 70, so how ... what did you do that you didn't have a succession situation when Mr. Fingleton turned 70 and he then ended up staying in the job, but with...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Well, under the circumstances, if you can just tell us how did it happen that he stayed on when the Building Societies Act-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: I'm sorry, Mr. Walsh, the question I'm asking relates specifically to Mr. Fingleton. Why was he still there after the age of 70?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: In the time we've left, Mr. Walsh, I'm grateful to you for that answer, and that's sufficient. I just want to go back, if I may, to the Central Bank of Ireland-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: -----report that we referred to earlier. Can I just be clear? You said, I think, to me, in the opening question, that you had not been interviewed by the Central Bank in relation to that report that they published in 2015. Yes or no?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: You weren't. That's what you said to me earlier today. Yes. Now, according to their own documentation, they say they had over 100,000 documents - I think it was 105,000 documents - that they used in order to derive these findings and they interviewed 21 people. I am just trying to clarify from what you said, I think to Deputy McGrath - are you suggesting somehow that, first of all, you...