 —  March - April 2012
Whistleblower
Jonathan Sugarman Our man in financial services
news
Blowing Whistles at the Regulator
Whistleblower went to the Central Bank in early
March to pursue its invitation to explain the breach
of liquidity ratios by Unicredit, Italys biggest bank,
in Dublin when he worked there as a financial risk
manager. Five years on, the Regulator has not taken
any action over the extraordinary failure – even
though unaddressed liquidity problems led to the
Bank Guarantee. Of course, when liquidity prob-
lems were revealed as insolvency problems the
guarantee was exposed as maiming this country
for a generation.
Despite an offer of confidentiality’ the Central
Bank has not in fact been willing to provide immu-
nity from prosecution for Whistleblower over his
revelations, many of which appeared first in Village
at the end of . Nevertheless, the meeting was
constructive. A whistleblowers lot is not an easy
one. More to follow.
Blower support
Just when Whistleblower had concluded no sup-
port was available for those who challenge the
official view of Ireland’s financial history, along
come not one but two whistleblower referral serv-
ices. Transparency International provides a free
referral service to a network of lawyers and other
professionals and reports concerns to employers
or the relevant authorities on behalf of workers
or citizens where both parties agree. Meanwhile
Whistleblowers Ireland will operate ‘Ireland’s first
independent whistleblowing site’ run by journal-
ists. It claims to be getting calls from white-collar
whistleblowers’ not sure how they should treat con-
tractual confidentiality clauses.
Blower legislation
Brendan Howlin’s promised whistleblowers’ legisla-
tion seems a real salvo at dealing with past problems
and would apparently even cover Whistleblowers
situation – it it was made retroactive.
Optimism
Whistleblower reckons the ECB, having thrown
some shapes about cutting public pay and social
welfare, will improve the terms on Ireland’s prom-
issory notes, currently attracting an interest rate of
. per cent. Now Greece has been resolved, after
the only default by a developed country in  years,
they hardly want Ireland to default, do they?
Confusion
Central Bank Governor, Patrick Honohan, is to
ask the ECB to delay the scheduled repayment
on the Anglo Irish promissory note. The Central
Bank was to give €. billion to Anglo so that
Anglo could stop borrowing so much from the
Central Bank. But instead the Central Bank wants
to give the money to Anglo and have Anglo use
that money instead to buy some of Ireland’s sover-
eign debt/bonds. This is being done so that Anglo
can use that sovereign debt as collateral for get-
ting loans from the ECB so that Anglo doesn’t have
to borrow so much from the Central. If it makes
no sense to you then you’veunderstood it.
Bribery
So, An Taoiseach says we can’t be bribed by a
reduction in Ireland’s debt burden before the ref-
erendum on the fiscal treaty. One IFSC old hand
told Whistleblower: ten per cent is a bribe; 
per cent is a deal.
Incompetent and Incapable,
Dishonest and Unethical?
The Sunday Business Post recently quoted Mason,
Hayes and Curran, white-shoe solicitors, say-
ing the Central Bank’s new ‘fitness and probity
regime for senior staff “would lead to legal chal-
lenges where the failure of an employee to meet
the Central bank’s standards results in them los-
ing their job. Whistleblower thinks this evokes
the essence of Irish regulatory laxity. Surely such
firms should have made implementing Central
Bank (and indeed all other relevant) standards
a condition of employment? The requirement is
that a fit and proper individual must be competent
and capable, honest and ethical, must act with
integrity and be financially sound. How could any-
one ever have had a standard any different?
Predictive gold
The ECB’s LTRO (Long-Term Refinancing
Operation) now stands at above one trillion Euro.
Its whats kept the lights on around Europe these
last months. Whistleblower re-poses the question
the FT asked recently: “Is the gold price correct
in predicting that the money-printing will end
in tears?”
Stressed
Meanwhile the CEOs of Bank of Ireland, ILP
and EBS will be the first to undergo the Central
Bank assessment, prepped by the US-based
Promontory Group. Gives a new meaning to
stress test.
Non-Irish sandwiches
Patrick Coveney, CEO of Greencore gave his inau-
gural speech as President of the Dublin Chamber
of Commerce. Upbeat message: businesses are
going to be at the heart of the recovery. Ironic
then that Greencore, having shut Irish Sugar, its
then only product, makes nothing in Ireland,
The Euro crisis explained
The eurozone
crisis explained in
a simple graph