Bankers told 'lies, after lies, after lies'

Only one shareholder threw eggs at Bank of Ireland’s meeting but everyone was angry

A LONG opening statement from Bank of Ireland’s governor Pat Molloy and his response to a first query from a shareholder was enough for Gary Keogh to let fly.

Sitting a few rows back from the podium at the bank’s annual meeting, the retired 67-year-old from Blackrock, Co Dublin threw an egg at Molloy, narrowly missing him.

Another egg, earmarked for chief executive Richie Boucher, was confiscated by security staff.

Keogh, the famous egg-thrower who struck at an AIB shareholder meeting in May 2009 hitting the chairman Dermot Gleeson, was escorted from the meeting.

A security guard who walked Keogh out asked politely if he was okay to get home or if he needed a taxi.

Keogh told The Irish Timesoutside the meeting that he had invested €5,000 in Bank of Ireland shares in 2007 and they were now worth €40.

He said he had to act as he was angry with how the management ran the bank and felt his action would “bring his blood pressure down”. Other shareholders at the meeting were only going to “start rattling their zimmer frames and walking sticks”, he said.

Inside, another shareholder Breda O’Byrne said she had asked a taxi driver at Heuston Station to take her to the meeting. When the car was stopped at a shop, the driver asked: “Do you want to get tomatoes, potatoes and eggs?” , she told the meeting, seeing if she wanted to arm herself.

In the end, she expressed her anger verbally at the loss of her investment in the bank and the bank’s decision to start selling its art which could gain in value in the future.

The audience comprised the elderly and the retired – “a sea of grey and white”, said one attendee.

Shareholders were furious that they are being asked to invest up to €2.2 billion more in new shares as part of a €4.2 billion capital raising bid after participating in a €3.6 billion fundraising last year.

“We were robbed last year as well as other years,” said Mary Clarke, another shareholder. “What did you do with the money raised last year?”

Molloy told the meeting that the bank had to raise more capital because of the results of the Central Bank stress tests in March to cover losses in “an adverse and unlikely macroeconomic scenario”. “My only concern is to get this ship off the rocks,” he said.

But shareholders questioned the captaincy of the ship, which is listing towards public ownership.

“You told lies, after lies, after lies,” said Pat King. “But let us assume for a moment you are not liars and you are just incompetent. If you are incompetent, then you should shuffle off. It is nothing personal but why do you not just go? We do not trust you.”

Mark Veale represented a 90-year-old shareholder whom, he said, didn’t know whether they could afford their hospital bed.

The bank didn’t understand the rage felt by shareholders, he said.

“The gentleman who threw something at the stage – I cannot believe that he is the only one.”