Category: Banks & Finance

Attic Archives

I’m in the process of sorting out old newspapers that have been stored in my attic for some years now, some dating back to the mid 1980s.

From time to time I’ll publish articles that may be of interest.

The following article, by Pat Brosnan, was published in the then Cork Examiner on Monday 11th March 1996.

A very disturbing story was related to me this week, and the unfortunate aspect of it is that the victim of this sorry tale didn’t even know he was taken to the cleaners.

A friend of mine told me how his brother was telephoning a branch of a bank in Cork and happened to get a crossed line.

It was a coincidence that he happened to overhear a conversation that was taking place between and bank manager he was ringing and the manager of another branch of the same bank.

What he overheard related to a discussion the two managers were having about a customer who had complained either about his overdraft or bank charges.

Either way, the customer felt he had paid too much.

The substance of the phony conversation was that the bank had, indeed, overcharged the man – to the tune of £25,000.

And what were they going to do about it?

In this case their customer was the owner of a small business which was in trouble, a fact that they knew only too well.

So what was the advice one of those miserable weeds offered to his colleague?

Offer him £9,000 and he’ll be only too happy to accept it because of the state of his business.

Because this happened some time ago I don’t know what the final upshot of it was. The one regret my friend’s brother had was that the name of the bank’s customer wasn’t mentioned during the conversation, because if it had he would have phoned him and told him what the real score was.

I’m sorry myself, that he was not in a position to do so.

As Irish citizens know to their great cost, nothing has changed. Still rampant criminality within the financial sector, still no regulation.

Traitor Dukes tells the people of Ireland to fuck off

At least €20 billion of the €22 billion poured into Anglo Irish Bank will never be seen again (RTE News, 2nd report).

This was obvious for quite some time but to actually hear the Chief Executive, Mike Aynsley, casually admit the fact was still shocking.

Ireland is ruined despite what Klaus Regling says.

If the people of Ireland remain docile, if they continue to wallow in their political ignorance they will be reduced to a standard of living similar to that of the 1950s.

They will be living in poverty with no self respect and no hope for the future. For generations to come Irish citizens will work long and hard to pay back their personal loans, their mortgages and the billions gambled away by the corrupt banks and politicians.

At the very least the people should rise up and throw those responsible for our destruction out of office. Not only is there no sign of this happening but members of the ruling elite who have betrayed Ireland continue to give two fingers to the people.

Alan Dukes is one such traitor.

He was questioned by Senator Ross in front of the Joint Oireachtas Finance and Public Service Committee regarding the appointment of Gary Kennedy, an AIB insider, and Fianna Fail hack, Aidan Eames, to the board of Anglo Irish Bank.

Here’s part of the row as broadcast on The Late Debate last night. (Remember, Dukes, allegedly represents the public interest on the board of Anglo).

Senator Ross: What input did you have in interviewing these guys?

Dukes: That’s as much an answer as you’re going to get Senator.

Senator Ross: Why?

Dukes: Because I’m not here to write a column on the back page of the Sunday Business Independent

Senator Ross: That is gratuitously ridiculous and insulting.

We’re entitled to answers to questions about people who are on nationalised banks and for you to say you’re not going to answer a question about who they are and what procedures were followed is completely unacceptable.

Dukes: It is perfectly adequate…

Committee Chairman: He has answered the question…

Senator Ross: He hasn’t, he said he has great confidence..

Dukes: It is perfectly adequate on my part to say that the three appointments have gone through due process and I’m perfectly happy with each member of the board we have.

Senator Ross: It looks to me as if these were imposed upon you and you’re not prepared to say so.

Dukes: That is not true, all due procedures were followed.

Senator Ross: Nobody interviewed them, they were parachuted in, they’re part of the old guard.

Dukes: That’s an allegation that you cannot stand up Senator.

Committee Chairman: Could you back up that allegation?

Senator Ross: I want to know how it happened, that’s all I’m asking.

Committee Chairman: You’re not allowing the chairman to reply.

Senator Ross: Ok, how did it happen?

Dukes: All of the due procedures were followed in making those appointments and in all previous appointments to the board. They have been approved by the Financial Regulator and that’s all I’m going to say.

Senator Ross: Were they interviewed by the board?

Dukes: I’m not going to reply to that.

In case there’s anybody out there with the slightest doubt about what the traitor Dukes is saying here, let me spell it out in crude but plain English.

He’s telling Senator Ross to fuck off, he’s telling the Dail committee to fuck off and he’s telling the people of Ireland to fuck off.

He is supremely confident that he can do what he likes, supremely confident there’s no authority in the land capable or willing to make him accountable.

Sadly, very sadly, for the people of Ireland, his confidence is justified.

Turning corners or a circle of disaster?

Halleluiah, praise the lord, wonder of wonders, we have – yet again – turned a corner.

I say ‘a’ corner because I’m not sure whether Brian Cowen’s corner is the same as Brian Lenihan’s or indeed the same as the many other corners we constantly seem to be turning.

I’m not an economist, just an angry observer so the following ramble may be a complete misinterpretation of what’s going on.

We have just handed over another two billion to Anglo Irish Bank. The handing over of this money to this bankrupt bank is, quite literally, no different from throwing it into a furnace.

This money immediately becomes part of the national debt so, for many decades to come, Irish citizens will be paying back every cent in successive budgets.

And remember, the Government is standing by with at least another 8 billion to throw into Sean Fitzpatrick’s furnace.

With hardly a murmur of comment the guts of a billion was spent last week to recapitalise (nationalise) EBS.

The cost of just these two events completely wipes out the savings planned in the next budget. The Government is scrapping the bottom of the barrel looking for ways to squeeze more and more out of taxpayers who have little left to give.

The gap between what the state spends and what it takes in is over 18 billion and increasing by about a billion every month. For me, the figures just do not add up.

The Government is getting great praise from abroad for its slash and burn policies and politicians and naive commentators are lapping it up but how much more can the Irish people take?

I believe that if Irish citizens continue to allow themselves be stripped of everything they own they will be reduced to a quality of life similar to that of the 1940/50s.

Even that would be a manageable situation if the country was led by honest, courageous and visionary politicians. But the political system is corrupt and rudderless, there’s billions owed on personal loans and credit cards and at least 70 billion owed as a result of the bank bailout.

It seems to me that for this government’s polices to work Irish citizens will have to accept living in absolute, grinding poverty for generations to come – how likely is that?

I don’t believe we’re turning corners, it’s more like we’re going around in a circle and that circle is sinking rapidly.

But then again I could have slipped into a parallel universe two years ago and am now living under the delusion that catastrophe is staring us in the face.

Hopefully my escape from this delusional world is – just around the corner.

Thieving banks – Past and present

Pat Kenny told the following story on Today with Pat Kenny (Wed. 12th May).

I was talking to a former banker last night, he’s out of banking now years and years, and he told me that when he worked for a particular bank before it became part of AIB it was common throughout all banks; to rob the customers regularly.

Now how did they do it? Well they rounded up what the customer owed and they rounded down what they owed the customer, so they were always at it.

Common throughout all banks to rob customers regularly – It’s not often we hear such a candid admission of criminality by a banker, even a retired banker.

We now know, of course, that widespread and systematic theft was, and probably still is, a common and fully accepted business option within the Irish financial sector.

I suspect that I was a victim of this Irish ‘tradition’ when, on 16th June 1992, a mysterious interest charge of £2.03 appeared on my current account.

When I rang the bank and politely asked for an explanation I was curtly told to put my request in writing, the official ended the conversation by sternly warning me to make sure the letter was properly signed.

Remember, this was a time when banks lorded it over the peasantry, before their criminality was exposed.

When the ‘put it in writing’ tactic failed the bank paid back the £2.03 to my account with the usual meaningless apology.

But I wasn’t happy, my suspicions were raised and I wanted to know why the deduction was made in the first place.

Over the following five months I engaged in psychological warfare with the bank by way of letters, phone calls and personal visits to the bank until eventually, in October 1992, the bank admitted that an error had occurred in their Electronic Money Transmission System.

The admission of error by the bank was important to me because up to that point they insisted that I was somehow at fault or an error had been made by my then employer (Dept. of Defence, Navy).

I have no doubt that my persistence wore them down but I found the whole experience very difficult especially when I made personal visits to the bank.

As I queued in line I could see the ‘Jesus, here comes the crank again’ look on the bank officials faces.

Before each visit I had to mentally psyche myself up, I had to mentally convince myself that I was in the right, that I was entitled to an answer to my simple question.

It had also occurred to me that AIB could be engaged in the systematic theft of small amounts of money from a large number of customers which accumulatively could amount to a significant sum of money every month.

We now know that this widespread theft was in fact going on but when I contacted every political party, the Dept. of Finance and the Central Bank to express my suspicions I was, without exception, patronisingly advised to switch my account to another bank.

In my innocence I was completely unaware that the main political parties and the so called regulatory authorities were fully aware of, and tolerated, such criminality within the banking sector.

In 1998, George Lee and Charlie Bird published their book ‘Breaking the Bank’ which detailed widespread theft and fraud by National Irish Bank.

I smiled when I read how bank staff went out of their way to target the accounts of ‘demanding or troublesome’ customers for special treatment.

Depressingly, there is no reason whatsoever to assume that large scale theft and fraud within the Irish financial sector is a thing of the past.

Despite the appointment of Matthew Elderfield as Financial Regulator there has been no change in the culture of secrecy that facilitates such criminality.

Neither is there any sign of the political leadership necessary to bring the thieves to heel.

Copy to:
Financial Regulator

Simple law enforcement; not special juries, are the solution to white collar crime

The Director of Public Prosecutions, James Hamilton, gave a very interesting interview on The Week in politics last Sunday.

He believes that expert juries are needed to tackle the rise in white-collar crime. He also spoke about the difficulties posed by the absence of a whistleblower’s charter.

The following are some of the answers he gave during the interview followed by my comments.

Why have you chosen this time to outline your views on white collar crime?

I think the whole question of financial regulation has become a very topical one and we’re obviously in an era where we’ve moved from the former idea of light regulation into a different mode. I anticipate that in the future we’re going to be seeing more files in the area of white collar crime and therefore it’s an appropriate time to look at whether or not we have the appropriate tools to do that.

The whole area of financial regulation has been topical since, at least 1979, when the criminal politician Haughey gained power and banks and other financial institutions were given a free hand to engage in criminal activity without fear of accountability.

Many countries, especially America, now regret the policy of light touch regulation and, unlike Ireland, are taking strong measures to rectify the situation.

Irish governments have always followed a policy of no regulation whatsoever, light touch regulation was and is irrelevant in the Irish ‘Wild West’ financial sector.

Practically nothing has been done to bring the financial criminals to justice and the little that has been done is nothing more than an attempt to fool the international community that Ireland is a normal, functional state.

There is no requirement for special juries, simple law enforcement will resolve the problem of white collar crime.

Why do you think a whistleblowers charter is now necessary in this country?

Essentially, a decision was made not to have whistleblower legislation back in 2007. The main reasoning behind that decision seems to have been that whistleblower legislation might cut across our system of light regulation and wasn’t appropriate given that that was the type of legislation we had at the time. I think there’s a case for looking again at that.

What? Whistleblower legislation might cut across our system of light regulation? Only a fool would put forward never mind actually believe such drivel.

The reason whistleblower legislation was rejected in 2007 and the reason it is still not even being considered is simple. If such legislation existed, the watertight protective systems set up by politicians and operated by so called regulators would fail thus exposing the criminals operating within the Irish financial sector.

Some may wonder whether our existing laws are up to the job?

Some aspects of it are quite robust. For example, in 2001, we amended our Prevention of Corruption Act and strengthened them in quite a significant way by introducing a presumption that where a payment is made to an official and that includes Ministers, TDs and Senators who makes a decision affecting a citizen that’s there’s a presumption that the money is paid corruptly.

There have been significant prosecutions under that legislation.

Significant prosecutions – who, when? I rang the DPPs office for a list and was met with the standard reply.

Oh no, Mr. Sheridan, that’s privileged information, we couldn’t possibly give that out.

When I pointed out that any such prosecutions were likely to have taken place in a public court accompanied by widespread media and public comment I was told to put my request in writing.

The letter is in the post.

Bankers have nothing to fear

Letter in today’s Irish Independent.

Bankers allowed make their own rules

IT is with a sense of despair, but not surprise, that I read the top brass of our bailed-out banks continue to reward themselves for failure, and our toothless Government just stands aside as they top up their pensions by multiples of the average industrial wage each year (Irish Independent, May 18). This, apparently, cannot be touched as it’s in their contracts.

As a rank-and-file employee in a leading financial institution for pushing 12 years I can tell you from experience that contracts can, and are, changed by banks.

Although I joined a couple of years too late to avail of the defined benefit scheme that was operating for new employees in the mid-1990s, a number of my colleagues were on it, thereby getting a set percentage of their final salary on retirement.

Two years ago, due to the ‘dire funding position’ of the defined benefit pension pot, all their contracts were changed and they had to start contributing a significant percentage of their salary.

This percentage is subject to (a probably upward only) review. Of course the Government then went and added their own slap in the face with the extra three years to retirement, but that’s another story.

If contracts can be changed for ordinary financial institution employees, there’s no reason why they cannot be changed for the top brass. This all reeks of a ploy to get around the new bank salary cap. At the same time, the top bankers are conveniently avoiding having to take what looks remarkably like a bonus in the form of their now worthless bank shares — instead, they take it as a pension top-up.

I’m not surprised at the bankers, who are feathering their own nests, or at our complicit politicians, who are happy to shift the focus from their own substantial nest eggs, but I despair.

Name and address with editor
Irish Independent

It has to be said again and again. The only reason bankers can feel completely safe in behaving in such an obnoxious manner is because Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state. Nothing will change until the rotten; beyond reform political system is destroyed.

Senator Ross: Still shocked after all those scandals

Once again Senator Shane Ross is shocked by the activities of greedy bankers.

His shock on this occasion was caused by the news that greedy bankers had hatched yet another sly scheme to get around government restrictions on pay and pensions (Newstalk).

The details of this latest greedy manoeuvre are not very important. It is, after all, just the latest scam hatched by greedy bankers who know they have absolutely nothing to fear from anybody.

What’s really fascinating about these events is how so called financial experts like Shane Ross can remain completely blind to the reality of the situation.

People like Senator Ross continue to believe that there is some kind of division between politicians and bankers; that politicians and regulators are acting in the interests of ordinary citizens and the good of the country.

The Senator seems to believe all this despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Since the foundation of the state no bank or bank official has ever been convicted of a crime. This is despite the fact that they have been robbing their customers and the state with impunity for decades.

It is only in very recent times and only after the total collapse of the economy that some minimum actions have been taken against these people.

Senator Ross apparently believes that the establishment of a Financial Regulator in 2003 was a genuine attempt to bring law and order to the Wild West Irish financial sector when the facts point to the complete opposite.

The Financial Regulator operates under strict secrecy laws that would be seen as extreme in the former Soviet Union.

The Senator probably thinks that such secrecy laws just accidentally appeared on the statute books, he probable thinks that politicians had absolutely nothing to do with the drawing up of these secrecy laws.

These secrecy laws have just one affect – they provide total protection for the widespread criminality within the Irish financial sector, criminality that continues unchallenged to this day.

The Senator told listeners:

People don’t seem to realise that the banks are running rings around the Government.

Wrong Senator, it is patently obvious that politicians and the regulator are willing participants in a system that defends the interests of bankers at the expense of ordinary citizens and the good of the country.

Copy to:
Financial Regulator
Senator Ross