Bank of Ireland's chief executive says the bank didn't need to be guaranteed by the government in September 2008.
Richie Boucher says he can't say if a guarantee would eventually have been needed, but has insisted that Bank of Ireland did not need to be underwritten by the government in September 2008 when the guarantee was introduced.
Mr Boucher's been giving evidence at the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry this morning.
He says there was a need for NAMA to be created - but not for a blanket guarantee covering all institutions:
The CEO also said he was "surprised" to hear the bank's former chairman, Brian Goggin, tell the Inquiry he had wanted junior bondholders to be guaranteed.
He says the bank had not made any corporate decision to ask for junior bondholders to be guaranteed - and that the matter had not even been discussed by the bank before the government began its crisis guarantee talks.
However he also said the bank understood - from about midnight onwards - that the government's guarantee would cover all six Irish banks, including Anglo and Irish Nationwide.
This contrasts with the evidence of AIB's bankers who attended Government Buildings that night, who say they only found out the guarantee would be a blanket one from the following morning's news bulletins.
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News:
