“I myself caught a brief glimpse of Fingleton’s personal style. In the mid 1990s I had a minor dispute with my then mortgage lender. To strengthen my hand I sought quotes from a number of other financial institutions. One day, returning to work from lunch, I dropped into an Irish nationwide office which was located close to where I worked at the time and filled in a mortgage application form.I then went back to work. Barely 30 minutes later the phone rang and the Irish Nationwide offered me a loan. That speedy response was very rare at the time. Conscious even then of Fingleton’s reputation, I politely declined.”
Financial journalist Dan White in tonight’s Evening Herald.
So, who were the others who were not so discerning?
“Sections of the media, particularly a generation of journalists in their fifties and sixties, did not cover themselves in glory either. Many years earlier Fingleton had started an annual golf tournament for Oireachtas members, journalists, gardai and the army. He got business out of it, selling mortgages to people who might otherwise have struggled to get them, mortgages being far harder to obtain in pre-Celtic Tiger days. He provided these without looking for extensive documentation or large deposits, and charged heavily for the privilege. He received extraordinary loyalty in return.”
Matt Cooper How Ireland Really Went Bust
Previously: A Little Light Reading