Bankers Compared To 'Teenagers'

One of the countries most senior financial regulation officials has compared the bankers to the likes of troublesome teenagers.

A director at the Central Bank, Fiona Muldoon told a conference of leading banking figures that they were in denial.

She said: "The economic milk spilt in poor lending, the losses already incurred, have not even begun to be cleaned up."

She went on to tell the bankers: "A culture of leadership is missing in Irish banking: many of you may dislike me for saying this but, arguably, if it was also missing in the creation of the credit bubble then it is still missing."

Pat Ferrel,Chief Executive of the Irish Banking Federation has stated that the banks should be doing what they can to make progress, even though we're in an economic crisis. He said: "It is not easy to turn around a ship, literally, which banking is, and go from a situation where you're very focused on lending and to try and go back to a situation where you're focused on collections and recoveries and supporting customers that are in distress."

(CH)