Anglo and personal guarantees

A High Court Judge today ruled that one of Anglo’s debtors, Michael Daly, who is being pursued to pay €84.4m in respect of loans from Anglo, had produced what the Judge described as an “arguable defence”. That being the case and exceeding the low threshold to prevent a summary judgement, the Judge ordered a full hearing for the case on May 20th, 2010. Mr Daly had said that he was led to believe that personal guarantees given by him to Anglo were “paper” guarantees and would never be called upon. Mr Daly appears to be defending himself but of interest is that the Judge has indicated that he, the Judge, expects Anglo to produce minutes of Anglo’s credit control meetings at the full hearing. The full hearing may cast further light on the general nature of personal guarantees in Irish banking over the last decade and the procedures adopted at Anglo in granting credit. The Irish Times carries a report on today’s judgement.