The Financial Regulator has pledged to build confidence in the banking network, saying that we are 'at a very fragile point still within the system here and internationally'.
The regulator's acting chief executive Mary O'Dea says the organisation is taking action to rebuild confidence in the regulatory system. Her comments followed the publication of a report into directors' loans after the Anglo Irish Bank scandal.
The report found no evidence that such loans were removed or reduced at the end of the year to avoid public disclosure in financial statements.
The six banks looked at were AIB, Bank of Ireland, Irish life and Permanent, Irish Nationwide Building Society, EBS Building Society and Postbank Ireland - all of which are covered under the government guarantee scheme. The period covered was from December 2005 to December 2008.
The report followed the controversy over loans to directors at Anglo Irish Bank. It emerged last year that former Anglo chairman Sean FitzPatrick had transferred loans from the bank to Irish Nationwide before the end of the financial year, effectively hiding them from public view.
Directors' loans at Anglo Irish bank were not included in the report as they are the subject of a separate investigation.
Today's report also found that none of the directors' loans at the six other institutions were in arrears and that all of the loans complied with limits set by the financial regulator.
But it did find some inaccuracies in some of the director disclosures in annual financial statements, while one institution was found to have omitted two loans of €16,000 from the data it submitted to the regulator late last year. The regulator said it would look at what action to take in the case of this institution, which it did not name.
The review found that a total of almost €26m in loans was outstanding to directors and people connected to directors in the six institutions by the end of 2008. The largest loan to a director not disclosed was for €148,000, while a loan of €11.3m to a business connected to a director was not disclosed.
The Financial Regulator has introduced new disclosure requirements on directors' loans. These require financial institutions to give details of the maximum amount loaned to a director during a financial year, as well as details of any unpaid interest or any provision for non-repayment of all or part of a loan.
It will also look at reducing the current limit for amounts which can be loaned to directors and introduce new rules covering how such loans are approved.
