Results 261-280 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----but was-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. Mr. McGann, you also attended an Anglo board dinner on 24 April 2008 at which the then Minister for Finance, Mr. Cowen, was a guest.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Was it common for Anglo to have dinners with senior political figures?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Did you attend other dinners of the board or substantially organised by Anglo, with senior political figures?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Were you aware of any-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Do you recall who the guests, the political-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: And finally, at those dinners, do you know if any representatives of the Central Bank or the Financial Regulator would have been in attendance?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Went, just to continue the theme, since you mentioned philosophical, etc., could I ask you if you maybe might ... if the situation could be summed up as follows, that your group lending grew aggressively, according to a PTSB report which is in our documents, from €12.9 billion - "lending grew aggressively from €12.9bln in 2001 to €39.2bln in 2007" - and, in that same...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: In the banks. The witness from ... a senior witness from Allied Irish Banks, for example, gave evidence of being under severe pressure to emulate Anglo’s profits and some of its methods.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, but the point is your lending grew exponentially-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----in a short period of time.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: I mean, as an experienced banker, would you not have been aware of what Mr. Honohan has said in some of his learned dissertations and Mr. Black, the former regulator in the United States, said that growth over 20% or 25% is a recipe for potential catastrophe later on?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, but, well, in general, that the financial institutions, in pursuit of profits and aware of the competition with their competitors, were growing their ... various elements of the business far too fast.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: But, Mr. Went, did you ... and if I refer to Vol 1, page 37 to 42 or so, in sticking to that, did you not at the same time loosen up considerably the criteria and did you not loosen your credit standards in such a way that gave rise subsequently to serious problems? For example, in the buy-to-lets, in reducing ... or in one situation where, if a proposal for a buy-to-let essentially is not...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. As an aspect of that, Mr. Went, can I ask you, in relation to the price of a home ... because you were experts in this field and evidence to this inquiry show that between 1996 and 2006 the price of an ordinary home increased each year for ten years by the equivalent of the average industrial wage. And that's an astonishing, I think you will agree, perhaps, statistic.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Was it not clear to experienced banking and experts in home mortgages, particularly like yourselves, that that was creating a ... an appalling scenario, and did you not consider ... raising alarm bells all over the place to stop that type of exponential growth in the price of an ordinary home?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: But, Mr. Went, with respect, if you all join inside the market in competing with each other and so forth, are you not part of the bubble blow up?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: I wish we'd more time to pursue that-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----because, Mr. Went, people with huge negative equity and 40-year mortgages, I think, would ... we could discuss that but because-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (3 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Again I wish we had more time. Just two very final points-----