A former executive on the board of Anglo Irish Bank has said the first time he heard any discomfort about the Maple Ten loans was after the bank was nationalised and that he felt at the time the whole story wasn't being told.
Declan Quilligan, who headed up the bank's UK operations, has been giving evidence at the trial of former Anglo Chairman Sean FitzPatrick, and directors Pat Whelan and Willie McAteer who deny providing unlawful financial assistance to the Maple developers and the family of former billionaire Sean Quinn to buy Anglo shares in July 2008.
Declan Quilligan, as a former Anglo board member, says he felt quite relaxed the Maple Ten loans were being handled in a proper way.
He's told the court he received an email from the CEO David Drumm on July 9th, 2008 to say the regulator had agreed to the proposal that Anglo would lend to a number of its high net worth clients with a view to taking some of Sean Quinn's 29 % Contracts for Difference stake in the bank, which was a matter of huge concern to Anglo.
He said he didn't meet the Maple ten, the regulator, Morgan Stanley or any of the participants but he understood loans would be issued, and that there would be recourse involved.
Asked whether with hindsight he'd do anything differently he said he wished they had every one involved signing off that this transaction was for the benefit of the Irish banking system.
He said the first time he heard any discomfort with the deal was after Anglo was nationalised when media reports made him feel like the bank had acted alone without taking advice, that people who had previously been comfortable with the deal were holding it out as an example of bad governance.
