Tape recordings of conversations between top executives inside Anglo Irish Bank in 2008 – published by the Irish Independent today – show that one executive knew that the total cost of bailing out the bank would be much higher than they were telling the government at the time.
The discussions between senior managers John Bowe and Peter Fitzgerald were recorded from the banks internal telephone system around the time of the banking collapse in 2008.
At the time, Mr. Bowe was in talks with the Central Bank and in the recordings he speaks about requesting a 7 billion euro bailout for Anglo from the government, even though negotiators knew it would not be enough.
In this clip we hear Mr. Bowe respond to Mr. Fitzgerald’s questions about how the figure of 7 billion was arrived at and how the strategy was to play for time.
The Irish Independent reports that when approached by the paper last Friday, John Bowe said he had no idea how much Anglo would need when he spoke to the Central Bank and that he should have told the bank this.
In a further statement, Mr. Bowe denied that he was a "participant in misleading the Central Bank".
In another statement, Peter Fitzgerald told the paper he was not aware of "any strategy or intention on the part of Anglo Irish Bank to mislead the authorities" over the funding of the bank.
