Perilous Times
Anglo Irish Bank failure could 'bring down country' warns Irish finance
minister
* By staff writers
* From: NewsCore
* September 30, 2010 12:26PM
IRELAND'S finance minister warned that the failure of Anglo Irish Bank
would "bring down" the country, as regulators prepared to reveal today
the cost of bailing out the stricken lender.
Brian Lenihan also pledged to stand behind the bank which will
reportedly cost the state some €30 billion (US$41 billion) to rescue,
in comments to the Financial Times newspaper.
"Any Anglo failure would bring down the sovereign," the finance
minister said. "It is systemically important not because of any
intrinsic merit in the bank. But because of its size relative to the
national balance sheet.
"No country could contemplate the failure of such an institution."
Ireland will disclose today the total cost of the state bailout of
Anglo Irish. The Irish Times, without citing its source, has reported
the cost could rise above €30 billion under a worst case scenario.
That would equal around one fifth of Ireland's total annual economic
output, at a time when the eurozone member nation is struggling to cut
a huge public deficit sparked by the global financial crisis.
Lenihan stressed that Ireland's financial health was better than other
peripheral eurozone economies, saying it had borrowing already lined up
to service debts and cover public services until the middle of 2011.
Ireland had a €24 billion sovereign wealth fund and "a cash pile" of
more than €20 billion, the minister said.
"We are not obliged to go to the markets. We are not under a clear and
present constraint," Lenihan said.
The Irish government has previously rejected speculation that it could
have difficulty raising funds and might have to seek help from a huge
E.U. rescue fund set up after the Greek debt crisis earlier this year.
Read more:
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/anglo-irish-bank-failure-could-bring-down-country-warns-irish-finance-minister/story-e6frfku0-1225932274064#ixzz10yd7pt6N