"Fingers" Says Sorry (Reluctantly)

Michael Fingleton, who ran Irish Nationwide Building society for three decades before quitting in controversy last year, has expressed remorse for the first time over the cost to taxpayers of bailing out his institution.

But the apology was made reluctantly.

Returning to Ireland from Spain, he was met at the airport by an RTE cameraman and the station's business editor David Murphy.

Mr Murphy asked him if he had any sense of remorse about what had happened at his institution and in other banks.

"Of course I have, of course I have like anyone else, I have indeed," he said.

The RTE man followed Mr Fingleton up an escalator inside Dublin airport and all the way to the taxi rank outside, asking questions as the former banking chief, clearly uncomfortable, tried to get away.

The confrontation came a day after Central Bank governor Patrick Holohan revealed that it could cost over $4bn to recapitalise Irish Nationwide - much more than initially thought.

Mr Fingleton resigned as chief executive in April 2009 after it emerged that he had received a €1m bonus just weeks after the Government introduced the €440 bank guarantee in September 2008.

He promised to return the money, even though he claims he was "entitled to it". But more than a year later he has not yet returned one cent.

The RTE correspondent asked him about the bonus but was told "I've already made a full public statement on that, that you're fully aware of".

Mr Fingleton also defended Irish Nationwide's role in the warehousing of €87m in secret loans to Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Sean Fitzpatrick over an eight year period to keep them hidden.

"That's a matter under investigation, that'll be made very clear in due course, that we had no responsibility whatsoever for those loans", he said.

He also indicated his willingness to co-operate with the upcoming banking inquiry.

"I've already co-operated," he said, "and I'll continue to co-operate in any way I can."

Irish Nationwide reported a loss of €2.5bn last year, after writing off almost a quarter of its €10.5bn loan book, due to high-risk lending to property developers and speculators during Mr Fingleton's tenure.

Mr Fingleton's successor at the helm of Irish Nationwide, Gerry McGinn, said the building society had been involved in "highly unusual" lending - in some cases giving more than 100% of the value of the land and taking a profit when it was sold on in a rising poperty market.

NAMA applied a massive 72% haircut to the second tranche of loans from Irish Nationwide, after buying the first batch at a 58% discount.

€8.5bn of its €10bn commercial loan book is now being transferred to NAMA.