Results 1,341-1,360 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: So you do have a role in examining the security that would be put up to guarantee those loans, is that correct?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, then, I notice Mr. McDonnell, in your PwC half-year review, which is in the documents, page 19, there is grave concern expressed here in relation to that very point, the valuation of loans, of financial instruments. For example, in the middle of page 19, your people say, "In cases where prices are obtained in the market, but these prices are not based on actual trades, consideration...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: But, in general, did you ever perform a review on the valuations received for assets offered as security?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: And was PwC satisfied with the valuation policy in Bank of Ireland?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: How do you explain then that the bank was left so disastrously exposed in the crash a few months after this document, for example?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, but Mr. McDonnell, the evidence given by NAMA chairman and chief executive here was damning, I would say, by ... in what they wrote in relation to issues of the security and the non-examination of security for very large loans who were left out. You didn't come across this in your audits in Bank of Ireland?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: No, I didn't say this. They didn't specifically refer to Bank of Ireland. They were speaking in general in relation to the banks whose loans finished up in NAMA.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Gentleman, and just to reiterate that you were also auditors for Anglo Irish Bank but due to current criminal proceedings before the courts and to avoid any danger of prejudice to those proceedings, it's not for today ... in relation to Anglo, it's for another day. So, Mr. Fitzgerald, if I could ask you, when you audited EBS in 2007 and 2008, you provided an unqualified independent...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: And in view of what happened subsequently to EBS and some of its loans and with hindsight, would you now provide those same opinion that the accounts gave a true and fair view?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: And, Mr. Fitzgerald, when NAMA acquired EBS loans, NAMA imposed a 57% haircut on the nominal value of those loans. I think it was from something like €900 million to €400 million. Why was this cut so drastically high?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: And when you were auditing EBS, were you satisfied with the valuation methodology used by EBS in assessing the value of land and development loans and the potential impact on the subsequent provisioning? And you may be aware of heavy criticism by NAMA's chief executive and chair, when they were in here, in a general comment on the banks in relation to the valuation and the type of...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay, thank you. Mr. Fitzgerald, the Financial Regulator reviewed EBS residential mortgages lending in 2007 and found that 7.35% of home loans were outside policy; 24.3% of home loans-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, that's page 17-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----of the core documents. 24.31% of home loans approvals exceeded affordability; and buy-to-let cases ... 15.82% were outside policy. And in a further letter from the regulator, which is page 21, in relation to the level of exceptions to policy ... "The level of exceptions to the Credit Policy for the eleven months to 30 November 2007, was 29.2%" but in 2006 it had been 42.1%. Is that an...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: I know, Mr. Fitzgerald, that you're the fourth cohort of auditors that have come before the inquiry and all have been extremely insistent on emphasising the narrowness, perhaps, if I put it like that, or the narrow parameters of the audit role. But do you say that the auditor has no role in reviewing loans, such as I quoted from the regulator, that fall outside of policy?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Fitzgerald, not just ... your ... as you said, I think, or it's a fact anyhow, that EBS turned to property and development loans to achieve growth and profits and that this was a characteristic of all the financial institutions in the bubble, some, to what has been referred to, as an excessive degree - what one of the witnesses here, Mr. Black, a regulator ... a former regulator from the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Did you have any occasion in relation to any concern about exceptions to lending policy to report that in any formal way? As you said, it's in the accounts, but did you have ... was attention drawn to this in any formal way as a result of any concerns Ernst and Young had?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. Mr. Fitzgerald, in 2008, Ernst and Young identified a "going concern" problem with EBS in relation to an outflow of funds, a fall in share prices, and then you have the guarantee-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Did you consider a review of the assessment of going concern in any previous year, in 2006 or 2007, for example?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (20 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: But you expressed concern in the 2008 ... was there any form of concern in relation to that issue in any of the previous years?