Outgoing Chairman of Irish Life & Permanent Gillian Bowler has said that the banking industry is stuck in limbo.
Referring to the Credit Institutions Stabilisation Bill, she said that while the bill is draconian and wide-sweeping, if 'one big shove' can get the industry working properly again, it is a good idea.
Ms Bowler announced she was stepping down from her position in IL&P yesterday.
She said the bill will be hotly debated and contested, but will be helpful towards restructuring and consolidation of the industry.
It emerged yesterday that the deadline for bids to buy building society EBS has been extended to 17 January.
Irish Life & Permanent and an investment consortium led by Dublin group Cardinal Asset Management are both making offers for EBS.
Ms Bowler said she believes that deadline will be pushed out further and adds that IL&P is still strongly in the running. She says the whole process is running behind schedule, and says that is one explanation for why she stayed so long as Chairman of IL&P. She added that she could not stick around forever.
Explaining how she survived as Chairman at IL&P when so many of her peers were stepping down, or forced to step down, she says that she told the truth at the lender's AGM and was always accessible to shareholders.
She denied it was a plot to keep a woman on board and said she became synonymous with IL&P.
She said that certainty has been good for the bank, with a surge in customer accounts recently.
On the issue of bank and civil servants' bonuses, Mr Bowler says it is 'absolutely insensitive' when so many people are suffering.
She is stepping down without a bonus as she is a non-executive chairman, but said that even if she was offered one she would turn it down.
On the new regulatory regime in Ireland, the IL&P Chairman said that Financial Regulator Matthew Elderfield is 'fantastic'.
Describing him as fair, approachable and with an open mind, she added that he is very tough.
She also said she has had no problems dealing with the Finance Department and says that no Finance Minister has ever faced so many problems as Brian Lenihan has had to deal with.
