Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide details of information submitted by him to the European Commission on 16 January 2011 regarding the contemplated resolution of the businesses of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28299/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The European Commission has cleared under EU state aid rules a joint plan for Anglo Irish Bank (Anglo) and Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) whereby they will be merged and resolved over a period of 10 years. The final plan was lodged with the EU Commission on 31 January 2011 in line with the timelines agreed with the IMF, ECB and EU for approval under state aid rules. Anglo Irish Bank and INBS together received a total of Eur34.7 billion in recapitalisations and both institutions furthermore benefitted from guarantees and the NAMA impaired asset measure.

As noted by the Commission, the joint plan fulfils the EU criteria on restructuring aid for banks as it: (i) provides for an orderly resolution of both institutions, (ii) contains appropriate measures to ensure that burden-sharing is achieved by their stakeholders and (iii) limited the distortion of competition through the complete exit of Anglo and INBS from the markets in which they operate (mostly Ireland, UK and US).

The plan sets out in detail how the two institutions' loan books will be resolved over the ten year period. To ensure that the assets are managed in a way consistent with the resolution of both institutions, several commitments have been put in place, such as that the merged Anglo and INBS entity cannot enter into new activities; make acquisitions or exceed a cap on new lending. The Commission stated on 29 June 2011 that it has therefore approved all aid measures granted to Anglo, INBS and to the merged entity as restructuring aid and closed its investigation into the restructuring of Anglo Irish Bank. The non-confidential version of the decision setting out the details of the plan is available to view on the DG Competition website.