In the Godfather movie when Don Corleone is gunned down the surviving family goes into lockdown mode back in its compound, and for increased protection put a car across the entrance and a chain for good measure. Apparently former Anglo CEO was watching because according to the Cape Cod Times, David Drumm has erected a wall and placed a chain with a big “no trespassing” sign on it across the driveway of his USD $4.6m waterfront property on Stage Neck Road in Chatham, Massachussetts – remember that’s the one where Charlie Bird door-stepped him with the immortal lines “what are you doing ducking down there?” with David seemingly lurking behind a sofa. So we’d guess David is not going to be forthcoming in the future though he has a case scheduled for hearing in the courts here in October where Anglo are seeking the repayment of loans and David is countersuing under a number of headlings.
The present Anglo management however isn’t very forthcoming either. The Independent last week took a strong line in criticising the company for not granting interviews and it seems that Anglo excludes what it perceives as hostile journalists from its press conferences.
Which left the Sunday Tribune’s Neil Callanan with a veritable cornucopia of access to the CEO Mike Aynsley and Chief Financial Officer Maarten Van Eden. I was going to say cornucopia of information but despite having ten articles on the bank in today’s edition, there was precious little new information forthcoming on two specific questions
(1) Why are Anglo’s provision for losses on its non-NAMA loanbook so low and if these non-NAMA loans are provisioned at the same level as the NAMA loans won’t Anglo need a bailout over €30bn.
(2) These loans which are being sold in the US – who is buying them and why is NAMA not taking them over.
There also seems to be disquiet about Anglo’s exposure to derivatives. Instead there was plenty of Seanie bashing – never ever going to get a Christmas card from Mike Aynsley apparently, and venting of frustration, the un-Australian word “frigging” crops up a number of times (though his use of the term put me in mind of a young priest that visited us at secondary school on a recruitment drive for future novices and impressed us by telling us that a neighbouring schools’ hurling team were a “bunch of fecking bastards”) and there is the usual promotion of Anglo’s preferred restructuring option of a good bank/bad bank.
Of course it has to be acknowledged that the CEO and CFO are relatively recent appointments and they are dealing with a dreadful legacy in which they had no input before autumn last year. That said, the abysmal first restructuring plan presented to the EU in November 2009 which was flatly rejected and roundly criticised for its lack of credibility was prepared under Mike Aynsley’s auspices. And the constantly growing bailout requirements have continued to grow under his leadership – remember the Irish Times in March 2010 “however, he [Mike Aynsley] said detailed financial examination by the bank and its advisers had shown it would cost between €6 billion and €9 billion – in addition to the €4 billion already invested in the bank – to restructure the lender and run the bank as a going concern.”! And despite the disastrous legacy that shouldn’t prevent journalists asking tough questions about present activity and future plans.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Thanks again for all your work on this.
Back to email the ODCE again tomorrow to ask when the enquiry will report….
No worries though as regards David Drumm I am not sure that he will in fact be present at the hearing of his claim here in October 2010 and there are obvious difficulties with Mr Drumm being based in a different jurisdiction.
Why are you so surprised?
These people are lying and it comes natural because they were recruited be a master liar in the Department of Finance
Nothing and I mean nothing that comes from these gangsters’ mouths can be believed
David Drumm is a bit player in a national tragedy. The problem is bigger than Anglo, who have answered more questions than any of the others, particularly AIB and INBS – not all, not even many – just more. No, the question is bigger than David Drumm, Anglo or the banks. Without disparaging Brian Cowen, it is more bovine. To use an analogy:
THE JUDAS COW
Ceaseless trains, one hundred and twenty to two hundred congested carriages long, convey cattle from the open ranges and ranches of the American heartland to the stockyards of Chicago. Each day over 30,000 animals are delivered to pens at the railway sidings. They arrive, disorientated by the strange environment, bewildered by the bellowed threats of the stockmen and tormented by electric cattle prods. Confused, they track the lead provided by one of their own kind, positioned at their head.
Instinctively looking for an escape route, they stagger gratefully through an opening to the abattoir. Defenceless, amidst the din of galvanised gates clanging closed behind them, they are delivered to the finality of the butchers. The beast, who led them in, walks serenely through to claim its lunch bucket. In Chicago, such an animal is known as “The Judas Cow”.
The parallel with the Irish people and our current leadership may not be obvious, but it resonates. We are urged into NAMA, to bail out Anglo and ultimately AIB and towards penury by the carrot and stick of our government’s PR machine. Not only are we denied the information to enable us to make informed decisions – we have been told lies.
It happened in Nazi Germany, people were coerced onto trains to an uncertain future. They were devoid of courageous leadership, made no resistance and were too afraid to question and oppose to oppose. We have no weapons of resistance either, but if we should not follow blindly if we are to control our own destiny – not that chosen for us by others. We need leaders with real vision, not those that follow the instructions of our European paymasters like Judas Cows.
It is our government that needs to answer questions – not David Drumm.
Agreed about David Drumm though that should not stop the prompt and efficient completion of investigations and effecting any consequences. It does come down to the government but we’re not Israel where 12-odd political parties with very different outlooks can suddenly unite as one when the katyushas come flying over the fence. We are facing an event on the scale of a war (in terms of financial expsoure and its consequences on our lives – in fact compared with Vietnam and Korea we are spending more of our GDP relatively on Anglo than the Americans did in those wars). There should be a government of national unity – we are ALL determined to get the solution that minimises the cost for all of us – that’s not just the FF/GP position but FG/Labour/SF as well. There should be a recall now of the Oireachtas. We still may end up with the present forecast of costs but at least we might understand and own any solution that is going to have horrendous (even if technically manageable) consequences on Ireland for generations.
Its a question of positive and creative leadership. And a vision for the future. We don’t have it.
Where are the politicians who can see beyond Anglo. We are burning Euro running the country at the rate of one Anglo per year (if you accept the official figures- or one every two years if you don’t) That is what is unsustainable.
Why is NAMA necessary? Why should the economy be stagnated just to transfer loans at a irrelevant valuation (one that changes from week to week at the stroke of an agent’s pen) to NAMA? The NAMA staff are already overwhelmed and cannot cope. It will only get worse. Are the banks not capable of working-out their own loans?
We have to have liquidity in the banks and we have to get them lending. At present we are in a “Post Anglo” period – stalled, banks like zombies, with an economy imploding in a deflationary spiral.
Patrick Kavanagh (who was a nut, but could write poetry) wrote about the Irish:
“When Drake was winning seas for England,
We sailed in puddles of the past”
Nothing much has changed. The future beckons but everyone is mired in remorse, Anglo, the banks and the past.
In tourism, we need leaders that see our stock of hotels as assets to be marketed overseas, not liabilities. Hoteliers that can combine to offer flights, car rental and accommodation packages that incentivise our visitors – not (as Michael O’Leary rightly says) deter them with a tax at the airports.
Our Georgian squares should be returned to the period, re-cobbled and restored making it a “must see” for aficionados and visitors; revitalised by allowing lateral conversion for residential use as in the great London squares, devoid of cars, with transport applicable to the era.
If we are to truly have a “smart economy”, we must attract the international research and development companies with incentives that are meaningful to them, not those that currently exist and which have no attraction whatsoever. How do you attract an R&D institute to Ireland when it is receiving $350 million in grants from the US government for locating there? And that’s only one facility in one location. The only way is to offer both them and investors IFSC status to locate on Irish university sponsored campuses.
Instead of pouring money into the banks for no return, the government should require the banks to offer a debt for equity swap for those mortgages in negative equity to be repayed as a percentage of the sales price or agreed valuation at some point in the future.
There are many other ways from healthcare to farming that we could improve our performance and generate increased revenue to balance the national books…. but not with a bunch of teachers and pseudo lawyers leading us.