04/09/2009

IL&P Fined €600,000 By Regulator

The Irish Financial Regulator has fined the Irish Life & Permanent bank over breaches of "regulatory reporting requirements".

The fine comes following an examination by the regulator following a torrid year for the financial services company, which saw an operating loss of €51 million for first half of the year.

In a statement released today, the Financial Regulator said it had "reasonable cause to suspect that Irish Life & Permanent plc’s internal control mechanisms failed to ensure the accuracy of certain regulatory reports in respect of its banking business provided to the Financial Regulator".

"The Financial Regulator reprimanded Irish Life & Permanent plc and required it to pay a monetary penalty in the sum of €600,000," the statement read.

The statement went on to say that the Financial Regulator could confirm that the company had fully co-operated with the regulator and had been open and

transparent throughout the examination.

"Irish Life and Permanent plc took prompt and complete remedial action to fully rectify the breaches. The matter is now closed."

A spokesman for IL&P said it regretted what he said had been a human error in the calculation of a figure, adding that the figure in question did not pertain to the day-to-day management of the company.

"It was our internal controls that identified the mistake," the spokesman said.

Despite the company's poor figures for the year so far, newly appointed Group Chief Executive, Kevin Murphy said in a statement last week, during the announcement of the profit slump, that the company would survive without the help from the controversial National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) plan.

If ratified in the Daíl, the NAMA body would be involved in purchasing toxic debts from banks, and allowing credit to begin to flow once again.

However, Mr Murphy said IL&P would not be availing of the project. “We avoided the pitfalls of development and construction finance and we will not be a participant in NAMA. Our lending focus has always been on mortgages for home owners and, while we’re seeing arrears on those mortgages rising as unemployment has risen, we are working closely with those affected to help them deal with their problems,” he said.

(DW/KMcA)

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