Drumm rejects FitzPatrick account of Anglo crisis

FORMER ANGLO Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has taken the unusual step of hitting out publicly at the bank’s former chairman Seán FitzPatrick over comments about his role at the bank in the lead-up to its collapse.

Mr Drumm dismissed Mr FitzPatrick’s characterisation of his position as Anglo chairman in 2008 as a kind of back-seat role as “bullshit”. “He was all over it,” he said.

Contacted at his home in Boston by The Irish Times, Mr Drumm rejected Mr FitzPatrick's comments – contained in a book published last weekend – that he had no day-to-day role in the running of the bank as the financial crisis intensified in 2008.

He also dismissed Mr FitzPatrick’s comments that he did not know about the bank’s funding problems and that Mr FitzPatrick left the running of Anglo to him.

Mr Drumm claimed Mr FitzPatrick began “interfering” in his management of the bank from late 2007 after problems developed over the secret investment, amounting to 28 per cent of the bank, by businessman Seán Quinn.

He also said he would not have applied for the job of chief executive in 2004 had he not been put under pressure to do so by Mr FitzPatrick, who has claimed he had no involvement in the selection.

Mr Drumm has also contradicted Mr FitzPatrick, claiming that he told him in July 2008 the names of 10 Anglo clients whom the bank had asked to buy a 10 per cent stake held by Mr Quinn.

In a series of interviews for the book, The FitzPatrick Tapes, Mr FitzPatrick claimed that he did not discuss with Mr Drumm the names of the 10 Anglo clients. "He absolutely and utterly was told the names – he knew who they were," Mr Drumm said yesterday.

Another Anglo source with knowledge of the so-called Maple 10 transaction confirmed that Mr FitzPatrick was told some of the names by another executive at the time.

Mr Drumm said that Anglo executives updated the board, which included Mr FitzPatrick as chairman, about the bank’s precarious funding throughout 2008.

“We had our usual scheduled board meetings but Seán FitzPatrick called countless ad hoc meetings and board conference calls, often at short notice, throughout 2008 specifically to deal with the funding crisis,” he said. “If any board member did not understand how banks fund themselves when they joined the Anglo board, they had a PhD in funding by the end of 2008.”

In the book, Mr FitzPatrick says he didn’t know about the bank’s critical funding position until August 2008.

Mr Drumm said Mr FitzPatrick had a “very controlling” role in the appointment of his successor as chief executive in 2004 – contrary to Mr FitzPatrick’s comments that he had no role in the selection process.

He said Mr FitzPatrick’s interference in his management forced him to complain to Anglo’s senior independent director on the board, Ned Sullivan, in April 2008.

“It was damaging to the bank . . . it undermined the management function within the bank as people began to wonder who was in charge,” he said.