Fingleton to face inquiry after appeal is thrown out

THE former Irish Nationwide chief executive, Michael Fingleton, has to face a Central Bank inquiry into the collapse of the building society.

The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled that Mr Fingleton, 80, cannot escape the inquiry because of his age.

Clearing the way for a Central Bank investigation, Judge Mary Irvine said Mr Fingleton had provided ‘simply no evidence’ that his eyesight was an important enough factor.

Equally, there was no evidence suggesting that ‘because of his age he would not be in a position to instruct his lawyers or to defend his position in the course of the inquiry,’ Judge Irvine concluded.

Mr Fingleton claimed that his eyesight difficulties might cause him trouble in reading over 110,000 documents in the case. But the Central Bank said Mr Fingleton wouldn’t be ‘prejudiced’ because all the relevant documents would be made available to him and his legal counsel.

He had accused the Central Bank of taking too long to start its inquiry into his stewardship of the nowdefunct building society. He also insisted that he’d never get a fair hearing – because it’s already in the public domain that the Central Bank fined INBS €5million in July 2015 for multiple breaches of financial services law and regulation.

The upcoming inquiry will examine alleged breaches of legislation or licence at INBS between August 2004 and September 2008.

Mr Fingleton claimed he should avoid the inquiry because, in his view, ‘going after dead banks’ and their elderly former bosses would not help ‘protect the public’. He claimed that subjecting him to such an inquiry would be like an ‘exercise in punishment and retribution’.

The 2010 collapse of the building society reportedly cost taxpayers over €5billion. The Central Bank now wants to investigate whether Mr Fingleton may have participated in those breaches himself. He could face a fine of up to €500,000 if the inquiry finds against him.