Britain ‘Knee Deep’ in Ireland After Bank Bailouts

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne says Britain “stands ready” to assist Ireland. What he didn’t say is that U.K. taxpayers have already funded the largest part of an 18.4 billion-pound ($29.4 billion) bailout for Irish lenders.

The aid was used to prop up the Irish units of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc since the onset of the credit crisis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

RBS, Britain’s biggest government-controlled bank, had at least 11.9 billion pounds of Irish assets covered by the U.K. taxpayer-backed Asset Protection Scheme at the end of 2009. It also sent 2.71 billion-pounds of additional capital to its Ulster Bank unit up to January this year, according to records in Dublin’s Companies Registration Office. Government-controlled Lloyds sent a total of 4.45 billion euros ($6 billion) in fresh capital to its Bank of Scotland (Ireland) unit in 2010 and previously, the bank said.

“We’re knee deep already in Ireland’s banks,” said Peter Hahn, a former managing director of Citigroup Inc. who now lectures on corporate finance at Cass Business School in London. “It’s going to get increasingly disturbing for people to see how exposed we are to Ireland’s banks.” If anything, 18.4 billion pounds “sounds like a low number,” he said.


http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQWZ9oC.vtQI&pos=5

 

Hey bro.. Let's drown together..

 

David Rosenberg said in his daily letter today that European banks own $650 billion of Irish debt...

Hopefully they can make it to St. Patty's day.