We are, by turns, puzzled and tickled by news that Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick loaned himself €87m from the bank, and then shifted the facility to another unnamed bank before the year-end each year – as a result the details did not appear in Anglo’s annual report.
There was nothing illegal here, apparently bizarrely, but Fitzpatrick has resigned in any case – as has one of the bank’s non-execs, Lar Bradshaw, who took out a joint loan with FitzPatrick.
FitzPatrick, in his departing statement, insisted Bradshaw knew nothing about the transfer arrangement. But what director of a bank doesn’t know that loans to directors have to be disclosed?
And anyway, what were they doing with the money?
And why haven’t we got the name of the bank that was used to warehouse the loan each year? Do they usually offer short term facilities of this magnitude to the chairmen of other banks?
Also, it seems the Irish financial regulator came across this arrangement sometime earlier this year. So why didn’t it act – especially when Anglo’s stock has been going up and down like a yo-yo as investors have questioned its solvency?
One more thing: now that FitzPatrick has given up his day job, how is he going to pay the money back?
Quite extraordinary.