FINANCE Minister Michael Noonan's decision to
liquidate the former IBRC has left the taxpayer exposed to potential
compensation claims that could run to hundreds of millions of euro from the
creditors of Anglo Irish Bank.
And taxpayers could be facing a tougher budget next year if a
feared €3bn shortfall in the valuation of IBRC assets is realised.
Fresh fears about the State being sued by angry creditors who
were wiped out have been raised after the former boss of IBRC, Mike Aynsley,
revealed in an interview with the Sunday Independent that the bank was solvent
at the time of its liquidation.
Former Anglo Irish Bank chief financial officer Maarten Van Eden
– who was a key member of the bank's management team after its nationalisation
– has said that all Anglo creditors would have to be paid in full because the
bank had been solvent up until the Government's decision to liquidate it.
"The liquidators may decide not to pay the creditors of
Anglo, but then they will be taken to court and the Government will lose
because you cannot walk away from the liabilities of a solvent bank.
"In a way, Mr Noonan is shooting himself in the foot by
saying that the bank was not insolvent. Insolvency is the only reason for not
paying your bills. Even if you expropriate by law you will have to pay
compensation," Maarten Van Eden said.
However, this weekend, sources close to the special liquidator,
Kieran Wallace of KPMG, rejected the claims by Aynsley and Van Eden, saying the
IBRC had only survived because of the extraordinary support given to it by the
State.
"The bank was only solvent at the grace of the Central Bank
of Ireland. It was not a solvent bank," the source said.
The issue of whether the bank was or was not solvent is central
to the claims for compensation. Included on that list of creditors who were
burnt are a number of major investment funds.
These include the Munich-based Xaia Investments, headed up by Dr
Wolfgang Klopfer.
Asked if Xaia had given any consideration to suing the State in
the event that it wasn't repaid, he said: "I expect a European government
to act within the laws and once they act within the laws, there is no need to
sue.
ANALYSIS, PAGE 19
"I'm very confident that they will do it – and if they
don't do it, yes."
It has also been confirmed that the decision to liquidate the
former Anglo Irish Bank in January will lead to a tougher budget if a feared
€2bn-€3bn shortfall in the value of assets is realised. The Department of
Finance has confirmed that taxpayers will be left picking up the tab for any
shortfall that is found once the valuation process is concluded by the
liquidator.
"The
money will have to be found, yes," a spokesman for the department said.
Under
the emergency act, the State's bad bank, Nama, issued bonds upfront what the
estimated value of the loan book of about €16bn.
However,
a department spokesman said this weekend: "It is simply too early to
estimate any shortfall at present and multiple statements have been made at
this stage in relation to this."
Michael
Noonan has also rebuffed concerns about the extension granted to Mr Wallace to
until the end of November to complete the valuation process, despite the
legislation saying it must be completed within 150 days of the act being signed
into law.
Speaking
to the Sunday Independent, Mr Noonan said: "I never expected any timeframe
that didn't carry us out until the late autumn.
"There
is 27,000 people involved who are customers of IBRC in one way or another. So I
think the liquidator is doing quite well."
Sunday Independent
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