Government wants to exit bailout without safety-net loan

THE Government is understood to be leaning towards a clean exit from the bailout, without a safety net.

The Coalition is expected to decide next month whether to leave the bailout with a backstop, known as a precautionary loan facility, just three weeks before the Troika departs.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan is currently in negotiations on the need for having the credit line on standby in case of any unforeseen crisis emerging.

EU leaders and the Troika are giving mixed views on the need for the backstop.

The Government is concerned the emergency credit line will come with punitive conditions applying.

Mr Noonan heads to Washington tomorrow to meet with IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and first deputy managing director David Lipton.

The IMF prefers for countries emerging from a bailout to have a backstop in place.

Mr Noonan has warned some European leaders are talking about attaching “unacceptable” conditions if Ireland wants an overdraft facility.

The talks with EU leaders and international institutions have not featured the terms of the back-up loan yet.

Government sources said the Coalition is “leaning towards” a clean exit but is open to hear the arguments for going with the credit line.

A decision on what route to take is anticipated next month, before Mr Noonan attends a meeting of eurozone ministers on November 21.

The exit from the bailout will formally happen on December 15.

The Government is also monitoring the stress tests to be carried out on the Irish banks.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is to take over as the continent’s banking supervisor next year, the first step under European plans for a banking union.

Some 128 banks are to be subjected to so-called stress tests early next year according to a single set of criteria for the first time, including five Irish banks.

In other words banks will have to undergo a thorough health check that will force them to recognise any hidden losses.

AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB will be ‘stress-tested’, as well as the Irish-based global bank Merrill Lynch.

ECB chief Mario Draghi said officials won’t hesitate to fail banks, signalling the Frankfurt body wants a thorough assessment.

“Banks do need to fail,” to prove the credibility of the exercise, Mr Draghi told Bloomberg television last week.

“If they do have to fail, they have to fail. There’s no question about that.”

Despite hopes for a panEuropean “backstop” fund to deal with any losses that might occur from troubled banks, there is speculation individual countries may be left to prop up their banks alone.

This is despite last year’s pledge to sever the link between sovereign and banking debt.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that backstops will be there . . . which doesn’t mean that they will have to be used because first and foremost it’s private money that needs to be used,” Mr Draghi said.

“There’s an explicit commitment to have in place proper, adequate national backstops by the time the exercise is being carried out.”