ANGLO IRISH BANK

Finance minister Brian Lenihan believes there will be prosecutions over the events at Anglo Irish Bank and the bank was “too big to fail”, The Sunday Independent reports.

“I believe there will be prosecutions in relation to what happened in Anglo Irish Bank but it is not a matter for me, it is a belief of mine,” he said.

Lenihan also defended his view that Anglo is integral to the country’s banking system, regardless of its tarnished image as a plaything for wealthy developers.

“Our problem with Anglo is that its balance sheet was very large, it was probably nearly half of our national wealth and clearly if you let an institution like that fail ripple effects to the credit of Ireland and the credit of the banking system are enormous.”

That clearly won’t be a problem in future, according to the main report in The Sunday Tribune’s business section. Apparently, post-NAMA, the bank will keep just €24bn in loans – a third of its peak total of €72bn when the government took it over in January 2009.