You can watch Kevin Cardiff at the Banking Inquiry now

I am nowhere near fully aware of the details that have been revealed but the more I hear the more sympathy I have for the government of the day and the more I form the opinion that the ECB were, and continue to be, very disingenuous about their actions around that time.
 
Kevin Cardiff is worth watching yesterday. The questioning wasn't up to much. But his half hour opening statement was excellent.

In summary - and it's a very brief summary

"The guarantee
I was opposed to such a wide guarantee but even now, I am not sure I was right or not.
There was no easy option. Everything would have been painful.
The banks wanted a much wider guarantee - I restricted it a bit.

We did not realise that the banks were insolvent. We relied on the Financial Regulator's assessment. Yes we should have been more intrusive earlier. But even if we had, what would we have learnt? PwC went in after the guarantee and said that they were solvent.

The bail out
We were forced into it. Directly and indirectly by media speculation."

The bit I don't understand is saying that we were forced into the bail out. We forced ourselves into it by living well beyond our means. The ECB didn't force us into the bail out - they forced us to face reality.
 
Will the Bankers be called back in to discuss the 'documents' they had drawn up well in advance of D-day? Because a few weeks ago they were saying no paperwork existed from that night
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Kevin Cardiff is worth watching yesterday. The questioning wasn't up to much. But his half hour opening statement was excellent.

In summary - and it's a very brief summary

"The guarantee
I was opposed to such a wide guarantee but even now, I am not sure I was right or not.
There was no easy option. Everything would have been painful.
The banks wanted a much wider guarantee - I restricted it a bit.

We did not realise that the banks were insolvent. We relied on the Financial Regulator's assessment. Yes we should have been more intrusive earlier. But even if we had, what would we have learnt? PwC went in after the guarantee and said that they were solvent.

The bail out
We were forced into it. Directly and indirectly by media speculation."

The bit I don't understand is saying that we were forced into the bail out. We forced ourselves into it by living well beyond our means. The ECB didn't force us into the bail out - they forced us to face reality.
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My view is that banks were allowed to make massive loans which for a variety of reasons went bad. Were it not for the Guarantee we would be all in a very difficult place now. What puzzles me is how the bank bosses allowed such an explosion of credit. They must surely have known the risks involved. Much of the media and political elements were criticial of the guarantee without trying to speculate on what might happen if it was not given. Turning to Mr.Cardiff i thought he was fortright and honest. I must say that from the time he started in the morning to the closing of the session he looked weary which was very understandle because of his efforts to explain issues to some of the questioners.
 
I was on the inside of this to some extent! I.e. I was involved in large deals that were extremely risky. I would consider myself a good risk analyst and a good banker. However in that "crazy" period the rules were changed and Senior Management were driven by shareholders to emulate Anglo and the extreme profits they were making. We were encouraged to accept property valuations from "Estate Agents" who had no real expertise as to the "real" value of properties other than to compare the properties with recent sales. To that extent the recent sales drove the value of similar properties where we were looking at double digit inflation of properties within a short time-frame.
So why did nobody call stop?? Well people actually did express their reservations. I can certainly remember putting in commentary on proposals that we should re-consider valuations supplied by certain Estate agents. However in many cases I was proven wrong as the properties were no sooner out of planning stage than they were being sold off the plans for big money.
This was in effect a Ponzi Scheme but we were all in on it. Everyone was benefitting and the country was awash with money. it's very easy to stand back now and allocate blame to the bankers/politicians. But why did so many ordinary people start borrowing money they couldn't afford to buy highly priced properties where the associated rental income could never meet the payments.
Greed Greed Greed! That's the motivator that drives us all. If there's apparently free money given out do you want to be last in the queue:rolleyes:
 
44brendan said:
I was on the inside of this to some extent! I.e. I was involved in large deals that were extremely risky. I would consider myself a good risk analyst and a good banker. However in that "crazy" period the rules were changed and Senior Management were driven by shareholders to emulate Anglo and the extreme profits they were making. We were encouraged to accept property valuations from "Estate Agents" who had no real expertise as to the "real" value of properties other than to compare the properties with recent sales. To that extent the recent sales drove the value of similar properties where we were looking at double digit inflation of properties within a short time-frame.
So why did nobody call stop?? Well people actually did express their reservations. I can certainly remember putting in commentary on proposals that we should re-consider valuations supplied by certain Estate agents. However in many cases I was proven wrong as the properties were no sooner out of planning stage than they were being sold off the plans for big money.
This was in effect a Ponzi Scheme but we were all in on it. Everyone was benefitting and the country was awash with money. it's very easy to stand back now and allocate blame to the bankers/politicians. But why did so many ordinary people start borrowing money they couldn't afford to buy highly priced properties where the associated rental income could never meet the payments.
Greed Greed Greed! That's the motivator that drives us all. If there's apparently free money given out do you want to be last in the queue:rolleyes:
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The key difference is that the senior bankers, politicians and senior civil servants - such as Goggin, Fingleton, Cowen, Ahern, Cardiff, Hurley et al - have remained financially insulated from their 'mistakes' - whereas the average punter has taken a hammering. Miriam Lord's article on 'Comrade Cardiff's' performance in today's IT makes for brilliant reading.
 
epicaricacy said:
The key difference is that the senior bankers, politicians and senior civil servants - such as Goggin, Fingleton, Cowen, Ahern, Cardiff, Hurley et al - have remained financially insulated from their 'mistakes' - whereas the average punter has taken a hammering. Miriam Lord's article on 'Comrade Cardiff's' performance in today's IT makes for brilliant reading.
Click to expand...

From that IT article:

Comrade Cardiff reckons: “I’ve probably become more of a socialist over the last few years than I used to be.”

Isn't it funny how most on the Left depend on the taxpayer for their income?
 
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