Irish Minister for Finance-  Brian Lenihan announced the plans for the troubled Anglo Irish Bank today.
The bank is to be split  – with  Anglo’s remaining loans beng  housed in an “asset recovery”  bank, where they will be worked out over a period of time. The Anglo Irish   deposits will be put into a government-backed deposit bank which will not engage in any lending.

“It will be a stand-alone, regulated bank, completely separated from Anglo’s loan assets and it will be owned directly by the minister for finance,” said Mr. Lenihan

The capital cost of the plan — the final bill which investors have been seeking — will be known in October when the central bank announces the units’ capital requirements.

The prospect of a final price being put on the cost of bailing out Anglo, which has saddled Ireland with the worst budget deficit in the European Union, gave some relief to Irish debt spreads but analysts said overall the lack of detail was disappointing.

Alan McQaid, chief economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers was reported as saying
“I don’t think the market gives a hoot one way or the other if it’s a ‘good bank/bad bank’ or if it’s wound up, the issue is how much it’s going to cost.”

Brian Lenihan – Finance Minister  spoke today about funding shortfalls in the Irish Banks . He said AIB would need to raise €7.4bn by the end of the year to meet targets. It plans to start selling off assets in Poland, the US and Britain to help raise this, but the State will have to take a stake in the bank.

Bank of Ireland will require €2.7bn in new capital, but it is hoping to meet much if this from private sources.

Irish Nationwide will require €2.6bn of new funds from the Government, most of which will be payable over 10 to 15 years.
EBS will need €875m. The State will provide €100m by taking new shares in the society, which will give the Government full control.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said the State would be providing €8.3 billion to Anglo Irish Bank this week alone, and that the bank may need a further €10 billion to cover its losses from bad property loans.

The State already owns Anglo Irish; it has an indirect stake of 25 per cent in AIB and a stake of 34 per cent in Bank of Ireland.
The investments in AIB and BoI will be in addition to €7bn that was provided in 2009. Anglo Irish recieved €4bn in 2009.

We are hearing plenty about the problems of the banks in Ireland and according to this – the Irish Government has pumped in €27 billion to the banks in the past year .
What has happened to all the massive bank profits made over the previous years? Who has had all that money? Where has it all gone?

These are the profit figures for AIB , BOI and Anglo Irish in the last 5 years

With all those massive profits – why should the taxpayer be bailing them out?

William McAteer – he former Financial Director of Anglo Irish Bank has been released without charge from Garda custody.

He was also the Chief Risk Officer at the bank – and was arrested at his home in Rathgar in Dublin by officers from the Garda Fraud Bureau at 6.30am yesterday morning.

The 59 year old was questioned at Irishtown Garda Station as part of the investigation into alleged financial irregularities at Anglo Irish Bank

Last week, the bank’s former Chief Executive Sean Fitzpatrick was also arrested for questioning; he too was subsequently released without charge.

Former Anglo Irish Bank finance director Willie McAteer has been arrested this morning  at his home in Rathgar, south Dublin. He has been taken for questioning to Irishtown Garda station in Dublin.

Mr McAteer was arrested by members of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, the specialist unit investigating practices and alleged irregularities at Anglo Irish Ban

The arrest of the 59-year-old, who was also formerly the chief risk officer at Anglo,  follows the arrest of the bank’s former chairman Sean FitzPatrick last week. (He was released wuthout charge)

Mr McAteer was one of a number of directors to have been loaned substantial sums by the bank. In March of last year he had a loan of €8 million owing to Anglo. The loan is secured on Anglo shares, which are effectively worthless following the bank’s nationalisation.

Mr McAteer resigned just over 12 months ago . At the end of 2008 Mr McAteer had more shares in Anglo, at 3.5 million, than any other member of the board apart from Mr FitzPatrick.

Anglo Irish is also in the news today – it is expected to announce losses of around €12 Billion Euro later today – but it has also increased the pay of about 70 staff.

Sean Fitzpatrick  -the former Chairman of Anglo Irish bank has been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged financial irregularites at Anglo Irish Bank.

Gardaí from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation carried out a search of a private residence this morning and arrested Sean Fitzpatrick  who has  been taken to Bray Garda Station.

Sean FitzPatrick stepped down in December 2008 after admitting he had concealed millions of euros in personal loans from the  bank.  He hid the loans from shareholders by temporarily transferring them to another bank before each year-end to avoid revealing them in the accounts.

Anglo Irish was nationalised by the Irish  government in 2009 after it threatened to collapse in the face of a property crash.

Last week Mr FitzPatrick told the bank he could not repay 70m euros  he owes in unpaid loans.

Gardai were called into investigate possible fraud at Irish financial insitutions over a year ago .  Many people will be asking – why did the arrest take so long?

What happened at Anglo Irish that was suspicious?

There was a transfer of nearly 7.5 billion euro from Irish Life and Permanent to Anglo Irish Bank which was paid back fairly quickly.

There were also loans of 451 million euro from Anglo to ten “golden circle” customers, to buy shares in Anglo Irish – which had the effect of propping up the banks market value.
Also  under investigation will be some  loans of 80 million euro to Sean Fitzpatrick by Anglo Irish Bank.

With Anglo Irish Bank apparently soon to announce losses of 12 Billion Euro – is it time to cut the losses and close it down?  This article by David McWilliams suggests it is.
In the article titled “Money-Sucking Anglo is our Financial Stalingrad” - he compares it to the battle for Stalingrad in the Second World War. Germany kept fighting for Stalingrad – even though they couldn’t win. Hitler thought that the  credibility of the German war effort was on the line in Stalingrad. He was convinced that if they cut their losses there, their credibility as a fighting force would be irreparably damaged.

For the second time in a few weeks – Irish Nationwide have increased the interest rate on their 12 month fixed rate deposit account. The new rate is 3.5% – it was previously 3.35% . The only 12 month fixed rate higher than that in Ireland now is 3.6% from Investec. Both accounts need a €20k minimum deposit though. Anglo Irish are paying 3.5% to – with a €1 minimum deposit

See the top 12 month fixed rate savings accounts here