Irish Nationwide

Irish Nationwide Building Society (not to be confused with Nationwide UK Ireland) was a financial institution in Ireland from 1873 to 2011. One of the country's oldest financial institutions, it was originally called the Irish Industrial Building Society; it changed its name in 1975 when it had just five staff. It ceased to exist when its assets, liabilities and branch network were transferred to Anglo Irish Bank.

The headquarters of Irish Nationwide were in Grand Parade, Dublin 6. The Society's chairman was Danny Kitchen and its last Chief Executive was Gerry McGinn who succeeded Michael Fingleton in 2009. It had around 100,000 members, with a branch network throughout Ireland. It also had branches in Belfast and London in the UK, and an Isle of Man division, based in Douglas. Irish Nationwide (IOM) Ltd ("INIOM") under a different name, Permanent Bank International Ltd, remained operating in Douglas, Isle of Man. It is set to close down at the end of 2017. Permanent Bank International Ltd was a wholly owned subsidiary of Permanent TSB Group Holdings plc ("PTSB") and was licensed by the Financial Supervision Commission of the Isle of Man to take deposits. PTSB is registered in Ireland, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and take deposits in the name of Permanent TSB. PBI placed funds with other parts of its group and thus its financial standing was linked to that of the group. Depositors could form their own view on the financial standing of PBI, and the group, based on publicly available information. The latest report and accounts are available at http://www.permanent-bank.com/. PBI was a participant in the Isle of Man Depositors' Compensation Scheme as set out in the Depositors' Compensation Scheme Regulations 2010.

"High risk and sloppy lending practices at the Building Society were reported to the Central Bank of Ireland by external accountants over a long period but did not change its behaviour", according to the management team which took over in 2010. The former head of compliance became a whistle blower by reporting "dodgy practices." Separately the Vice Chairman told the CBOI of his concerns in great detail, but again they did nothing.

It reported a loss of €2.5 billion for 2009 after writing off €2.8 billion in loans – almost one-quarter of its loan book. The Chairman said "I don’t think it is an understatement to say that the losses are truly shocking, particularly in an undertaking the size of Irish Nationwide,".

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