THE FORMER CEO of Anglo Irish Bank has claimed that the Department of Finance wanted the bank to ignore certain businesspeople in the sale of some assets - even if it meant losing out on €100 million extra in revenue.
The claims were made in written evidence to the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry this evening by Mike Aynsley, who ran the bank after it was nationalised in 2009.
Mr Aynsley claimed he was "shocked" at the developments which occurred in early 2013.
In his written statement, he said he had received an email from one of his staff in January 2013 - only a month before the bank was put into special liquidation - where a Department official said a particular asset should not have been sold to the successful bidder.
This was, he said, "simply because the buyer was a named Irish businessperson or his company".
Discussing a further hypothetical sale to the same businessman, Mr Aynsley wrote:
"The Bank Executive then moved the conversation to the possible sale of another major business asset, and asked the [Department] official whether he would be in agreement with a certain price in the sale process from the same Irish businessperson or his company, or alternatively a €100 million [sic] less from another party.
"The response from the [Department] official was that the lower price would be preferable, and that he believed the Minister for Finance would also be supportive of that position."
Mr Aynsley made similar remarks in later oral exchanges at the inquiry:
The identity of the businessman was not disclosed in either Mr Aynsley's written or oral evidence.
It is not known whether the Department's stance was ever acted upon, as the bank was put into special liquidation after emergency legislation was passed overnight in February 2013, a month after Mr Aynsley was informed.
He also said the official from the Department had encouraged the bank to speed up the disposal of its assets "by entering into bilateral sales arrangements, a process the bank had previously embargoed in favour of an open sales process that had to be transparent, arms-length and fully valued."
Mr Aynsley said he believed the emails were evidence that the Department's staff were not adequately skilled in adding value to the bank's own efforts to maximise its value for the taxpayer.
He added that his email inbox would still contain a copy of the report written for Mr Aynsley by one of his staff, but that this was now in the possession of IBRC's special liquidators and had not been previously made available to the Banking Inquiry.
The inquiry is now to seek legal advice about how best to refer the matter to the ongoing Commission of Investigation, set up to investigate the sale of SiteServ and other assets by the former Anglo Irish Bank.
The bank's former managers have insistently said that they insisted every asset sale needed to be conducted by open tender in order to maximise the highest possible return for the taxpayer, which invested €34.7 billion in a bailout.
Mr Aynsley's comments are the first time that claims have emerged of the Department of Finance taking a different stance, and preferring to sell assets at a lower price if it meant excluding certain bidders.
