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Anglo Republic: Inside the bank that broke Ireland by [Simon Carswell]

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Simon Carswell

Anglo Republic: Inside the bank that broke Ireland Kindle Edition

by Simon Carswell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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As late as 2007, Anglo Irish Bank was a darling of the markets, internationally recognized as one of the fastest growing financial institutions in the world. By 2008, it was bust. The Irish government's hopeless attempts to save Anglo have led the state to ruin - culminating in a punitive IMF bailout in late 2010 and threatening the future of the euro.

Now, for the first time, the full story of the Anglo disaster is being told - by the journalist who has led the way in coverage of the bank and its many secrets. Drawing on his unmatched sources in and around Anglo, Simon Carswell of the Irish Times shows how the business model that brought Anglo twenty years of spectacular growth was also at the heart of its - and Ireland's - downfall. He paints a vivid and disturbing picture of life inside Anglo - the credit committee meetings, the lightning-quick negotiations with property developers, the culture of lavish entertainment for politicians and regulators - and of the men who presided over its dizzying rise and fall: Sean FitzPatrick, David Drumm, Willie McAteer and many others. This is not only the first full account of the Anglo disaster; it will also be the definitive one.

Print length

334 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Penguin
Publication date

September 5, 2011
File size

13183 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Simon Carswell is Finance Correspondent of the Irish Times and the author of Something Rotten: Irish Banking Scandals. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005IP4SKK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; UK ed. edition (September 5, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 5, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 13183 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 334 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,820,072 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #654 in Corruption & Misconduct in Politics
- #862 in Banks & Banking (Kindle Store)
- #1,093 in Company Histories

Customer Reviews:
4.4 127 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

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Harley

Interesting

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 20, 2013

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I bought this in order to get a handle on the events around Anglo, as having lived through the period you do not always understand things completely. I found it interesting and in some ways pretty scary jut how much nonsense these guys got away with. Of course now there have been tapes released confirming the cowboy attitude towards banking regulation and the public. As someone who has worked in the industry I feel rather stupid now. Anglo was held up as an example, and our bosses were asking why we too could not make the return they made. We could see it should not be possible. But no-one thought he was quite the scoundrel he turned out to be. A bit naive of me in retrospect. I guess its like that fairy tale story the emperor new clothes. Everyone goes with the herd.

One person found this helpful

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TheMajor

Very readable despite the weighty topic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2013

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Simon Carswell does a superb job in presenting a number of complex, intricate and intertwined stories in a readable and understandable style. His access to key players in the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank provides a major insight into how business was done not just in the bank, but in the Celtic Tiger economy which has had such a devasting impact for the Irish state.
Carswell reveals the greed, arrogance and stupidity which drove the Tiger over the cliff - the politicians being primarily guilty of the last attribute.
His forensic detail on the background to the Quinn saga is particularly interesting and - as it has not been directly contested by the Quinn family - stands as the definitive narrative of this sorry story, and is required reading by those who continue to support Quinn.
Worthy and worthwhile.

One person found this helpful

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POF

A great read - makes my blood boil !

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 3, 2012

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I really enjoyed this book as an inside view on the lead up to and subsequent collapse of Anglo - the author has really got into the guts of this sad story. Having worked in the insolvency and banking industries for over 20 years, the "lessons" from how Anglo was run as a business are sadly being repeated now and will continue to do so in future e.g. dominant CEO, over concentration on one market, belief that they are "better" than other competitors, poor MIS, dominant sales culture, etc., etc. My real anger is at how the losses caused by well paid cowboys have now been socialised to the entire Irish people and bondholders are being paid 100% when they took normal credit risk on Anglo - this goes against one of the fundamental concepts of bankruptcy. Sadly the legacy of Anglo will be felt for many years to come !
I would commend this book to anyone with an interest in how not to run a business !

One person found this helpful

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R. Cartaxo

How hubris destroyed a bank and brought a country to the edge of the abiss

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 29, 2014

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A good read, with a lot of inside information. Very well researched and written with a solid knowledge of the subject. Maybe some details might be spared. All in all I found the book informative and entertaining even as a reading for hollydays.
Hubris is perhaps the best explanation to what happened to the Anglo Irish Bank. But in my view the real source of Anglo's disgrace was the awful governance that prevailed in the bank. To have good governance rules in place is the only remedy to avoid arrogant and megalomany developing and taking over organizations, specially after long periods of success as was the case with the Anglo Irish Bank.
I frankly recommend the book.

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Francis J. Keane

Well covered topic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 6, 2012

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Too often the subject matter of economics and banking gets superficially covered by the media due to it's inaccessibility. This seems especially true of the Irish media. Simon Carswell does very well to cover the rise and fall of Anglo Irish Bank and the economic backdrop in an informed and detailed way.

Having followed the subject closely, there was not much new news presented here for me but this is a comprehensive recount of the story and there is plenty of juicy detail around the characters and drama that unfolded. It's a great read and I recommend it highly.

One person found this helpful

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DonGeo In PA

too bad the link to the American-based Players wasn't further developed ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 4, 2017

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Sickening account of fraud and theft... too bad the link to the American-based Players wasn't further developed along with the toxic relationships of the players to the Troubles and their leaders who ultimately sent their IED technology to the mid-East.

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Emac

Indispensable To Any Student of Finance or Fraud

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 12, 2017

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Detailed but concise study of the bank--and conditions--that wrecked Ireland and nearly the EU as well.

One person found this helpful

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John Downey

A good historic account

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 19, 2014

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Simon Carswell is an experienced journalist and he approached the subject by describing all the players and the chronology of one of the largest banking failures in modern history.

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Top reviews from other countries

Ian Fraser

A gripping read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 19, 2014

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Anglo Republic: Inside The Bank That Broke Ireland is an excellent account of how a small Irish lender inflated a property bubble of epic proportions before becoming one of the biggest financial basket-cases in Europe.

Carswell, former finance correspondent of the Irish Times, has marshalled superb sources in order to give readers a ringside seat at many of the meetings and events that drove the Dublin-based lender's phantom success and its ultimate demise. He describes how Anglo Irish Bank, founded in Dublin in 1964, became a highly leveraged bet on the future of Ireland's increasingly unsustainable property market, a poster child of European banker profligacy and excess, and nearly brought down the Irish economy.

I particularly liked some of the quotes about the bank's former CEO, Sean FitzPatrick. For example on page 38, Carswell quotes a former director of Anglo Irish Bank as saying: "Sean FitzPatrick felt that it was Sean FitzPatrick plc and not Anglo Irish Bank plc -- he felt that it was his bank, that he should call the shots to the board and the management ... He didn't want a board at all." ... He also quotes a former executive as saying: "He had an ego that liked to be lauded. As the bank attracted more attention, the ego inflated. I think there was a lot of venerating at the altar within the bank."

There are parallels with the Royal Bank of Scotland, where CEO Fred Goodwin was no less of a narcissist, conflated the institution he managed with his own ego, treated the board with disdain, and would have got rid of them if he could. There are other parallels between Anglo Irish Bank and Scotland's uber-reckless twins, RBS and HBOS. All three banks prided themselves on their buccaneering attitude to loan approval, which short-circuited the normal credit processes and risk-management practices. It was a great way of ensuring more money could be lent out quickly during the boom times but it didn't look quite so clever after the crash.

Carswell brilliantly describes how Anglo Irish's carefree approach to lending forced other lenders operating in Ireland to emulate it. To avoid losing market share, profits and credibility with investors, rivals including Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, Irish Nationwide, Irish Life & Permanent, Educational Building Society (as well as RBS's Ulster Bank unit and HBOS's Bank of Scotland (Ireland)) convinced themselves that their survival depended on lending like there was no tomorrow (though it's debatable whether the two Scottish banks - once memorably described as "suitcase bankers in kilts" by one of Ireland's old school bankers - were followers or leaders in this regard. Some believe that it was their piratical incursions into Ireland in the late 1990s and early 2000s that caused Irish bankers to go off their heads).

Just like HBOS and RBS, Anglo Irish was a bank that has much to answer for and, as with them, it appears that several of its former executives ought really to be in jail. Hopelessly under-regulated when times were good, it was ultimately able to hold the Irish people to ransom.

Even when two former executives - former head of lending in Ireland Pat Whelan and ex finance director Willie McAteer - were found guilty of making soft loans to illegally prop up the bank's share price, they were not sent to jail. They're serving community service instead.

Ian Fraser is author of Shredded: Inside RBS, the Bank That Broke Britain

4 people found this helpful

Mike Stephens

Cracking Read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 31, 2013

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If you ran an airline where you only had one pilot on the flight deck, half the numbers of cabin crew, no maintenance and barely enough fuel, you would make more profit than everyone else. Until of course you have a crash.

You can't do that because the authorities won't let you. They know people are very silly and must be constrained from doing dangerous things.

However nobody exercises control on the high-rolling gamblers that fly asset bubbles until they explode with mind-boggling fall-out.

We all knew that things would end in tears, but nobody did anything to stop it.

The elements are dangerous people getting hold of the controls, no regulating authorities that do anything, and the inability of all the prudent people to persuade us to turn back.

You can see all this playing out in vivid detail in this book.

It's shocking the sheer pace of it all, but at least you see the main players being totally ruined.

4 people found this helpful

John G

Easy and interesting read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 25, 2013

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I bought this book over a year ago, read it, and archived it. I didn't bother to write a review at the time, though had I done so, it would have been very positive. In the last few weeks (july 2013) after the publication of the Anglo Tapes, I re-read the book, found I had forgotten large tracts of it, and really enjoyed the read. It was tense, hilarious at times, shocking at others, but overall an essential bit of study for anyone who wants to understand what went on at Anglo, and in Ireland in general during the boom years. Well written, full of good detail, and hard to put it down once you get into it. Highly recommended.

3 people found this helpful

nicholas

Irish go mad

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 11, 2011

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Excellent book on the Anglo disaster- I would have liked more analysis on the Anglo financial numbers - the book is by a very good Irish journalist and he does a very good job, but not enough analysis of the balance sheet of Anglo
The book will be soon out of date but the writer manages to capture the Irish cronyism that existed until september 2008
Good book to capture the Oirishness of this disaster - Sean Quinn et al - that has and will cost the Irish taxpayer bllions for year to come
Sad story

One person found this helpful

Irish in Brussels

Brilliant read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 20, 2012

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite all the anger it generated as I read it. Simon Carswell did a great job giving a full history of Anglo from its humble beginnings, its mega unsustainable growth, to its downfall and eventually death. It also unfolds the main men behind Anglo, their rise to the top and how they brought a whole country to ruin.

I really did thoroughly enjoy this book, which probably isnt the correct terminology to use as I got so mad to see how unregulated the whole banking sector was during the Celtic tiger years by government officials who were paid massive sums of money to regulate the industry but who took a backseat to it all, yet cashed in their big pay checks.

A really good book for anyone who wants to learn more about the whole Anglo story and the reason why Ireland is crumbling under a massive debt burden because of a few greedy bankers and businessmen!!

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