October 3, 2008

Stock Exchange investigating Anglo Irish Bank

The Galway Tent has acted. We are pleased to announce BIFFO followed the hints delivered to him in a bag of chips from The Galway Tent. The man of action ate a few sausages at 7 AM and then committed €400 Billion of the little peoples' money to 'save the banks'. The best Pyramid Scheme in the world rolls on.
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Revolving Doors:
Ex-DDDA Employee Now At Anglo Irish Bank.

Anglo Irish bank, whose shares tumbled 46% on Monday, had borne the brunt of the collapse in confidence, and was understood to be the main focus of the high-level talks to avert a crisis in the Irish banking system. On Tuesday, the lender's shares sky-rocketed in light of the government lifeline.



Any Bids for Sandymount Strand?
IGB-Sandymount Strand, On The Books At €425 Million.

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Bank chiefs facing share deals probe

By Ailish O'Hora Business News Editor

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bank-chiefs-facing-share-deals-probe-1488613.html

Friday October 03 2008

THE Irish Stock Exchange is investigating a number of share dealings in Anglo Irish Bank, including those by the bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick and fellow director Lar Bradshaw, in the run-up to the Government's decision to introduce its €400 Billion ($600 Billion) bailout package.

The shares were bought over a week ago, after talks had opened between banks, the Financial Regulator, the Government and the Central Bank about the state of the banking system, but before the bailout was agreed.

The transactions earned Mr Fitzpatrick a paper profit of €326,000 and Mr Bradshaw a paper profit of €79,000.

Mr Fitzpatrick bought €1.1m worth of shares in Anglo -- which lends to the commercial sector -- at €3.85. Mr Bradshaw, who is former chairman of the Dublin Docklands Authority, bought 50,000 shares at €3.92 each.

Shares in Anglo Irish increased by 18pc last night to finish at €4.90.

Both share transactions were made on Tuesday, September 23, although discussions about the state of the Irish banking sector started prior to this date.

The share deals were conducted prior to the emergency discussions which led to the Government bailout in the early hours of Tuesday.

While the Financial Regulator is the competent authority on 2005 European market abuse directive, the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) works alongside the regulator in such cases.

Neither Mr Fitzpatrick nor Mr Bradshaw would comment on the investigation last night.

Mr Fitzpatrick was paid €431,000 for his role as chairman of the bank for the 12 months to the end of September 2007. He joined Anglo Irish in 1978 and became a director in 1985, and chief executive in 1986, before becoming non-executive chairman in 2004.

Details of the stock exchange probe emerged as the Government succeeded in getting its controversial €400m bailout passed into law yesterday.

It was signed by President Mary McAleese after the Dail and Seanad passed the bill yesterday morning, following a historic all-night debate.

Anglo Irish, whose shares tumbled 46.2pc on Monday, had borne the brunt of the collapse in confidence, and was understood to be the main focus of the high-level talks to avert a crisis in the banking system. On Tuesday, the lender's shares sky-rocketed in light of the government lifeline.

Challenge

Taoiseach Brian Cowen last night challenged the banks to start loaning again to businesses, who found credit lines had closed.

"Legitimate, well-planned and costed business ideas can now, and must now, be banked.

"We did not make the move we made in order to 'prop up' an ailing system. We chose this course because we have an economy to protect and to grow," he said.

In his address to a business dinner in Trinity College last night, Mr Cowen starkly warned the banking sector that the state guarantee was not free and that a "substantial fee" would be imposed.

He described this week's major intervention as a "defining moment in our nation's history."

"We need a robust banking system. Protecting it in the manner and on the scale we have done this week is not something government does lightly," he said.

Aside from the Government parties, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein voted for the plan, but the Labour Party opposed it.

Three non-Irish owned banks, Ulster Bank, Halifax and National Irish Bank, are now applying to be included under the State guarantee.

Mr Lenihan said the activities in this country of any bank admitted to the scheme will have to be ringfenced. "That's the crucial point," he said.

- Ailish O'Hora Business News Editor

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

http://www.publicinquiry.eu/2008/10/13/fitzpatrick-tripped-up-by-his-ego/


Fitzpatrick - Tripped up by his ego
Published
by
Anthony
on October 13, 2008
in Banks & Finance, Government and Regulatory Agencies
.

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The chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, Sean Fitzpatrick, is being investigated by the Irish Stock Exchange over allegations of insider trading. The investigation will, of course, be a farce. The ISE, like the Financial Regulator, doesn’t really do regulation.

Fitzpatrick bought €1.1 million worth of Anglo Irish shares after talks had opened between the banks, the Financial Regulator, the Central Bank and the Government.

The banker turned a tidy little profit of €326,000 from the deal when Anglo Irish shares increased by 18pc after the Government bail out was announced.

Still, despite having nothing to fear from the ISE, Fitzpatrick was foolish to allow himself to be ambushed by Marian Finucane in a recent interview (Sat. 4th Oct).

Finucane very cleverly massaged Fitzpatrick’s ego by asking him how influential he was in the €400 billion government deal with bankers.

Fitzpatrick couldn’t resist asserting his self importance; here are some of his comments before he finally realised he was being set up by Finucane.

“I knew lots of things were happening because we had discussions obviously with the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator and the Dept of Finance over the previous weeks.”

“Well, I met the Dept of Finance officials and I met the Minister and clearly I spoke on a regular basis with the regulator and the central bank.”

Finucane asked him about his contact with Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.

“I was explaining the difficulties and he was explaining the difficulties they had, there was lots of things being discussed by lots of people in different ways… We had to get the difference between what was happening externally and get that across and remove the issue about the bad debts…which we eventually did and he saw that very, very clearly.”

“What I was trying to do was explain the situation to him, we certainly exchanged ideas”.

Fitzpatrick finally realised he was being set up when Finucane asked him about a report in the Sunday Independent concerning allegations of insider trading. Suddenly, the banker wasn’t so influential.

“Did you have a sense that the Government was going to bail out the banks, asked Finucane?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Did you not know before hand that the Government was going to bail the banks out?”

“Of course I didn’t, that wasn’t out until Monday night.”

“But you had been talking to the Minister the previous week.”

“I had been talking to the Minister the previous seven days about various issues, about what he could do but I wasn’t sure what he was going to do..”

“Were the banks all talking to each other at this stage?”

“Not on a constant basis…there was no cohesive, no group meeting with the Government at all.”