Tag Archives: Anglo Irish Bank

Ireland offers the world a bid and a bank

These two stories are related only in terms of Ireland offering itself to the world, albeit in vastly different ways. Readers are welcome to share their quips about any similarities of banking and rugby. MH

An initial public offering for 25 percent of state-owned Allied Irish Banks has opened on the Dublin and London stock exchanges. The bank was nationalized in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The government stepped in with a €21 billion ($23.50 billion) taxpayer bailout. The IPO is expected to raise €3 billion. As Reuters reports:

A successful flotation would mark another milestone in a dramatic turnaround from a banking and fiscal crisis that wrecked the country’s economy a decade ago. … One of Ireland’s two dominant banks, AIB returned to profit three years ago. It has cut its huge stock of impaired loans by more than two-thirds since then, and this year it became the first domestically owned lender to restart dividends since the crash.

Meanwhile, Ireland also submitted its bid to host the Rugby World Cup in 2023. The “Ready for the World” proposal calls for hosting matches at a dozen stadiums on both sides of the border.

France and South Africa are also vying for the tournament. World Rugby will announce the successful candidate in November.

Here’s the slick promotional video, narrated by Northern Ireland-born actor Liam Neeson:

 

Arrogance and deceit exposed at Anglo Irish

The Irish government is scrambling to launch an investigation of the 2008 Anglo Irish Bank collapse after the Irish Independent uncovered damaging internal telephone recordings between two senior executives from the period.

The newspaper says the recordings reveal “a dual strategy of deception and scare tactics to the lure [the national government] into a financial trap that eventually cost billions and bankrupted the country.”

The arrogance and deceit of the two bankers is shocking to hear. The recordings are available on the Independent‘s website.

Anglo Irish eventually required a 30 billion Euro bailout from Irish taxpayers. One of the bank’s toxic assets is located near my home in Tampa, as detailed in my blog post for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Anglo Irish Bank held a defaulted $27 million note on Channelside Bay Plaza, below, a retail and entertainment complex in Tampa, Florida. TBBJ photo.

Channelside