The Irish government on Thursday night nationalised Anglo Irish Bank, the country’s third-largest lender, after the collapse of its share price accelerated in recent days amid fresh reports of large scale deposit withdrawals. The move ends all attempts to keep the bank in private ownership and came in response to fears that the bank’s failure would trigger the state’s guarantee, leaving the government responsible for settling close to €100bn of liabilities, including €50bn of customer deposits and €20bn of wholesale deposits. The government said the bank would continue to “trade normally as a going concern”. But most analysts believe it will be wound down over time.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 5:50 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with anglo irish bank. Edit this entry.