Irish Nationwide Building Society admits to breaches

Irish Nationwide Building Society has admitted to multiple breaches following a Central Bank investigation.

INBS admitted to breaching financial services law and regulation, including persistent failure to comply with its own internal policies and procedures.

The Central Bank has reprimanded INBS and imposed the maximum applicable fine of €5 million. As the INBS does not have any assets, the fine will not be collected.

"The collapse of INBS cost the Irish taxpayer €5.4 billion. It was a matter of significant public interest to ensure that a thorough investigation was carried out by the Central Bank to examine key issues arising within INBS between August 2004 and September 2008," said director of enforcement Derville Rowland.

The Central Bank said the settlement followed its most significant and extensive regulatory investigation to date. It began in 2010 and focused on INBS’s compliance with its own policies and procedures for commercial lending and credit risk management.

The society admitted to multiple failings at several levels of its commercial lending process, from operational lending to credit review, its credit, provisions and audit committees all the way to its board of directors.

Ms Rowland said the INBS’s failings amounted to “a consistent and, at times, wholesale disregard for its own policies and procedures”.

While the settlement concludes the Central Bank’s case against INBS, further inquiry will be held to establish whether certain people involved in the management of INBS participated in the breaches.