Ex-Anglo finance chief denies shareholding coloured judgment

Former chief financial officer of Anglo Irish Bank Matt Moran has denied his shareholding in the bank coloured his judgment.

Mr Moran appeared before the Dáil’s banking inquiry and said he held shares in the institution because he saw his future there.

However, he insisted: “My shareholding cost me very significantly but my shareholding never clouded my view. What was important was having open dialogue with brokers and investors.”

Mr Moran said stakeholders suffered from August 2007 to Anglo’s eventual nationalisation in 2009.

He insisted nobody within the Bank anticipated the depth or length of the economic crisis Ireland would suffer.

“The economic crash stemmed, at least in part, from the global financial crisis. This was initially signalled by the rescue of Northern Rock on the 14th of September 2007 and the forced takeout of Bear Stearns the following March,” said Mr Moran.

“It was further exacerbated by the previously unforeseeable decision to allow Lehman Brothers to fall in September 2008 – almost 12 months to the day since the Northern Rock failure. Official indicators did not signal the scale of issues to come.

“On the contrary, save for some exceptions, most commentators predicted a soft landing. Throughout 2008 the international crisis escalated.”

‘Small player’

For Anglo, the crisis was compounded by businessman Sean Quinn’s contracts for difference (CFD) in the bank.

Mr Moran told the inquiry: “The inherent difficulties surrounding the entire banking industry, and specifically Anglo Irish Bank’s position as a small player in the banking pool, was compounded by the shareholder issues. By these I refer to Sean Quinn’s CFD investment in the bank and problems arising from its unravelling.”

Mr Moran served as chief financial officer during the years leading up to the bank bailout before taking up the role of finance director in January 2009, the same month that Anglo was nationalised.

He was among those who presented the bank’s annual report in December 2008, when the then chief executive David Drumm said that Anglo expected to “generate robust core profits over the next three years”.

The Anglo executive hit the headlines in 2013 when it emerged he had been granted immunity from prosecution by the Director of Public Prosecutions for all matters relating to Anglo Irish Bank.

He has since given evidence in legal proceedings on behalf of the State, including in the trial of the bank’s former chairman Sean FitzPatrick and two former directors Patrick Whelan and William McAteer, who were accused of giving unlawful financial assistance to 16 people to buy shares in the bank.

Mr FitzPatrick was subsequently found not guilty on all counts, while Mr Whelan and Mr McAteer were sentenced to community service.