Second meeting of bank inquiry established by Central Bank

The inquiry established by the Central Bank of Ireland last year to investigate into matters relating to the collapse of Irish Nationwide will hold its second meeting on Wednesday.

The regulator published a notice on its website on Tuesday stating that an inquiry management meeting would be held in private. Its first meeting was held on December 4th, also behind closed doors.

Members

The inquiry was established by the Central Bank last July and it has three members –

Marian Shanley

as chairwoman, Ciara McGoldrick and Geoffrey McEnery.

It was set up to establish whether "certain persons who were concerned in the management" of the former building society participated in the commission of suspected prescribed contraventions. Irish Nationwide was nationalised in 2010 and received a bailout of €5.4 billion. It was later merged by the State with Anglo Irish Bank into Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. The business of the building society was closed under State ownership and IBRC was liquidated in February 2013.

Separately, on Tuesday the Central Bank detailed nine settlement agreements reached with regulated entities between May and December 2015.

Anti-money laundering

The largest financial settlement collected was for €1.75 million with

Western Union

Payment Services Ireland Ltd for breaches relating to its obligations in connection with anti-money laundering procedures and countering the financing of terrorism.

It also agreed a settlement with Irish Nationwide for multiple breaches. The maximum fine of €5 million was imposed but as Irish Nationwide did not have any assets, the regulator decided not to pursue collection of the fine.

Last May it fined Tadhg Gunnell, a former partner with Bloxham Stockbrokers, €105,000 and reprimanded him for his actions prior to the collapse of the firm in 2012. As Mr Gunnell was declared bankrupt in January 2015 the penalty was waived.