Anglo has viable future as business bank - Dukes
12.03.2010
The chairman designate of Anglo Irish Bank Alan Dukes has said he believes that the nationalised lender has a future role to play as a viable business bank and that it could eventually form a useful part of Ireland’s banking structure.
Speaking on RTE Radio 1’s News at One today, Dukes also said suggestions that the bank should be wound down immediately would hit taxpayers to a much greater extent that if bank continues to operate.
Closing Anglo down now would crystallise losses that would otherwise be spread over a number of years, he said.
Dukes added that at his best guess, if the bank was closed down tomorrow it would result in losses of somewhere over €20bn.
He suggested that a far more rational way of approaching Anglo would be to keep it afloat now and rebuild it over time into a viable institution which could be refloated into the private sector, and so could possibly offer a net gain to the taxpayer.
Keeping bank afloat in this way would also cost much less than it would cost if it was wound down immediately, he added.
Annual results will be on time
Dukes also said Anglo Irish would be on time in producing its annual results. It must release these by the end of this month.
He added that these annual results would make it clear what Anglo’s immediate recapitalisation needs will be.
Recapitalisation would then put the bank in far better position to go to market to get funding, he added.
In terms of staff redundancies, Dukes said a further redundancy programme will be needed during the course of this year, although he said he could not guess at the size of that programme.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan TD announced today he was appointing former Fine Gael finance minister Alan Dukes to succeed Anglo’s current chairman Donal O’Connor, who will retire from the position at the end of June.