IRISH NATIONWIDE has hired forensic accountants from Ernst & Young to unearth and pursue any malpractice discovered, according to its chief executive.

Gerry McGinn, who has been chief executive since June 2009, said that Nationwide had brought in accountants to assess lending practices and policies it pursued.

“We actually have a small team of forensic accountants in here – we are quite methodically going through in a disciplined way a range of things in this society,” said Mr McGinn.

“We are not being passive about this: this is not directed at any one individual. It is work that we have undertaken for the last six months. We have a small team in here and they are looking for any evidence of malpractice and where we come across it we will pursue it.”

Nationwide reported a loss of €2.5 billion for 2009 this week after writing off €2.8 billion in loans – almost one-quarter of its loan book. The Government is injecting €2.7 billion into Irish Nationwide to fill the capital hole created by the “unprecedented” levels of bad loans.

Lending practices pursued by Irish Nationwide, which was run for 37 years by Michael Fingleton, were “shoddy” and “well below standard”, said Mr McGinn.

Irish Nationwide received legal opinion from two senior counsel that it could not pursue Mr Fingleton for the return of a €1 million bonus paid to him in November 2008, weeks after the bank guarantee was introduced. The society has written to him several times seeking its return.

“It is a contracted payment. We are relying on him to honour the public commitment he gave. I am sorry – as unsatisfactory as that may be to the general public that is where we are,” he said. “Have we given up? The answer is no. The chairman continues to write to Michael Fingleton. We are asking him to honour the commitment that he has made publicly.”