Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Moving the money

Part of me found it funny when I heard tonight that the banks in Ireland help each other out in times of need. According to RTE 9pm news when Anglo Irish Bank was suffering from low deposits at the end of its financial year last September, Irish Life & Permanent extended Anglo 'exceptional support' in the form of a deposit of 'billions of euro'. As a result instead of falling year on year, Anglos deposit base grew, at least for the few days around the end of the year.

If this is true then bloody hell! Apparently this is all legal and 'the transactions were fully and appropriately accounted for in the books and records of Irish Life & Permanent and in regular reports and returns to the Financial Regulator'. I don't know if its a good thing that the banks are helping each other out like this or if it's just scary. What else is going on in the banking sector in Ireland? Is this where we find out there is only one real bank in the country and they just move the money and furniture around before the financial regulator comes to visit?

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