What do you think?
Rate this book
Anglo Republic: Inside the Bank that Broke Ireland
The Number 1 Bestseller - The definitive history of the bank that brought Ireland to ruin 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 bank the Sunday Times described as 'a building society on crack' is being told - by the journalist who has led the way in coverage of Anglo 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 - 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.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
14 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Simon Carswell
2 books1 followerJournalist. Currently financial correspondent for the Irish Times.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 28, 2014
To me the strongest point of this book does not lie in the unearthing of the nitty-gritty details of how the the massive Anglo collapse came about per se, but more in the detailed way in which it traces the social mechanisms that led to it. While clearly critical of his subjects, the author does not neglect to show the compassion necessary to make the reader understand why they did what they did, and more importantly why they thought that it was the right thing to do. The fact that the story itself is gripping is of course supportive in the endeavor of writing a fascinating book: While I personally saw myself expecting to be less interested after the first half because I mainly picked it up to learn about the culture that created the degree of detachment from reality that is a precondition for the kind of institutional failure as observed here to happen, I found myself being almost as invested in the story of Anglo's ultimate demise. The reason for that is simply that the individuals responsible are interesting as characters and not only for their actions.
While it is always difficult to judge how true an author is to reality when his reporting has to rely as heavily on personal reports as is necessary in this case, the book clearly demonstrates that the sheer factual knowledge represented here is impressive.
While it is always difficult to judge how true an author is to reality when his reporting has to rely as heavily on personal reports as is necessary in this case, the book clearly demonstrates that the sheer factual knowledge represented here is impressive.
May 6, 2012
In 2006 Ireland was riding on the back of the Celtic Tiger phenomena. The country was booming. The sky was full of cranes, unemployment was the lowest in Europe, everyone seemed to be driving a new car, and shopping trips to New York seemed normal. Fast forward to the end of 2011 and the country is in a very different place. One of the biggest banking busts globally led to the country being bailed out by the troika of IMF-ECB-EU and the effective loss of economic sovereignty. Unlike most of the rest of the global financial crisis that started to unfold in 2007, Ireland's economic crisis was not tied to the packaging and reselling of complex financial derivatives linked to sub-prime loans in the US. Rather it was a good, old fashioned property bubble grossly inflated by access to global inter-bank lending, very poor financial regulation, tax incentives, laissez faire planning, and greed. Ireland's banks, hungry for profit and growth, started to believe the rhetoric of developers hungry for capital to buy land and build property, and lent out massive sums of money. Risk assessment, due diligence and basic market analysis were pushed to one side. The result was huge profits, high stock price, massive lending way in-excess of deposit books, and enormous over-exposure to property. As the global financial crisis started to bite, the Irish banks and their lending came under scrutiny. Large institutional shareholders, investors and depositors started to get nervous. Share price dropped, money flowed out of the country, and investors wanted repaying. A run on the Irish banks seemed likely. The Irish government stepped in with a bank guarantee scheme, offering a national guarantee to all deposits and investments (to the tune of €440 billion). Next followed a calamitous set of decision-making that ultimately led to recapitalisation and nationalisation of the banks, the formation of NAMA, effectively a state bad bank, and the country being bankrupted. Bankrupted being the right word, since by tying the state to the Irish banks through the guarantee, the country was wedded to their dwindling fortunes.
Anglo Republic tells this tale through a forensic examination of Anglo Irish Bank. Anglo was the financial darling of the Celtic Tiger years. It grew from a small investment bank to become the third largest bank in the state. Each year it posted record profits and its share price grew accordingly. And more than any other bank its growth was tied to the property sector. Analysts were flabbergasted at its performance. Rather than questioning its business practices, they instead invested. Here was a bank that had seemingly found a magic formula. As Simon Carswell's book reveals, however, it's success was built on poor foundations and dodgy practices. Anglo was dependent on persistent high growth in the Irish economy to keep its house of cards upright. As soon as the economy started to slow, it started to fail. And it started using all kinds of tricks to keep the cards in place, including shifting money on and off the books when accounts were being audited and lending money to borrowers to buy shares to keep the share price up. If things were bad in the bank, things weren't much different outside with the financial regulator, Central Bank and Department of Finance all working to keep a dying entity alive. Anglo was viewed by the Irish government as a systemic risk to the state and could not simply wound down. Its balance sheet was equivalent to 60% of Irish GDP (Lehman Brothers was 7% of US GDP), and represented a fifth of the banking sector. Globally, no bank that represented such a large proportion of a country's banking balance sheet had failed before. All told, an entire year's worth of tax receipts were pumped into Anglo and promptly written down, never to be seen again. When Carswell chose the subtitle, 'Inside the Bank that Broke Ireland', he was being literal.
Anglo Republic is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the present Irish crisis and how it unfolded from a wider banking perspective and within a single financial institution. Carswell has amassed amount of information on the company and how it operated, included access into board meetings, email between key players and dozens of interviews. He does a very good job at putting a shape to all this information, producing a compelling narrative that details what went on in and outside the bank. Crucially he manages to weave the main characters, their motivations and actions, into the story to lift the book up out of a rather dry history. Sean FitzPatrick, David Drumm, Sean Quinn, Pat Neary and Brian Lenihan all figure prominently. What is particularly interested is the ways in which FitzPatrick, Drumm and Quinn schemed to try and save themselves and their personal fortunes whilst trying to keep a sinking ship afloat. Where the book is a little thin is with respect to wider analysis and judgement. Carswell describes in great detail Anglo's rise and fall, but does little to explain it; he shies away from commenting on the legalities and moralities of actions taken; and he fails to state how he thinks the system needs to changed to stop such a situation arising again. Overall, a book heavy on factual narrative that provides a very useful descriptive analysis of a banking and state failure. It's also a book that should perhaps come with a health warning: 'likely to make your blood boil'.
Anglo Republic tells this tale through a forensic examination of Anglo Irish Bank. Anglo was the financial darling of the Celtic Tiger years. It grew from a small investment bank to become the third largest bank in the state. Each year it posted record profits and its share price grew accordingly. And more than any other bank its growth was tied to the property sector. Analysts were flabbergasted at its performance. Rather than questioning its business practices, they instead invested. Here was a bank that had seemingly found a magic formula. As Simon Carswell's book reveals, however, it's success was built on poor foundations and dodgy practices. Anglo was dependent on persistent high growth in the Irish economy to keep its house of cards upright. As soon as the economy started to slow, it started to fail. And it started using all kinds of tricks to keep the cards in place, including shifting money on and off the books when accounts were being audited and lending money to borrowers to buy shares to keep the share price up. If things were bad in the bank, things weren't much different outside with the financial regulator, Central Bank and Department of Finance all working to keep a dying entity alive. Anglo was viewed by the Irish government as a systemic risk to the state and could not simply wound down. Its balance sheet was equivalent to 60% of Irish GDP (Lehman Brothers was 7% of US GDP), and represented a fifth of the banking sector. Globally, no bank that represented such a large proportion of a country's banking balance sheet had failed before. All told, an entire year's worth of tax receipts were pumped into Anglo and promptly written down, never to be seen again. When Carswell chose the subtitle, 'Inside the Bank that Broke Ireland', he was being literal.
Anglo Republic is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the present Irish crisis and how it unfolded from a wider banking perspective and within a single financial institution. Carswell has amassed amount of information on the company and how it operated, included access into board meetings, email between key players and dozens of interviews. He does a very good job at putting a shape to all this information, producing a compelling narrative that details what went on in and outside the bank. Crucially he manages to weave the main characters, their motivations and actions, into the story to lift the book up out of a rather dry history. Sean FitzPatrick, David Drumm, Sean Quinn, Pat Neary and Brian Lenihan all figure prominently. What is particularly interested is the ways in which FitzPatrick, Drumm and Quinn schemed to try and save themselves and their personal fortunes whilst trying to keep a sinking ship afloat. Where the book is a little thin is with respect to wider analysis and judgement. Carswell describes in great detail Anglo's rise and fall, but does little to explain it; he shies away from commenting on the legalities and moralities of actions taken; and he fails to state how he thinks the system needs to changed to stop such a situation arising again. Overall, a book heavy on factual narrative that provides a very useful descriptive analysis of a banking and state failure. It's also a book that should perhaps come with a health warning: 'likely to make your blood boil'.
September 24, 2012
Probably won't have any explosive revelations for anyone who's been following the Anglo story, but has a good level of first hand accounts from the inside of the debacle. The story is zipplily told in a chronological manner and is easy to read.
April 23, 2019
Very detailed - I didnt know of how bad the crisis was in Ireland during the GFC.
Of note was the fact that until the very end, the bank reported very good numbers, with low bad debts and decent provisions.
But high growth, in a small economy with overseas funding and the loan book overexposed to largely a particular sector - property - was enough of a yellow signal to stay away.
And therein lies the problem; when you see a good ROA institution, growing well and available for what is called cheap; one thinks of it as a bargain. But financial institutions are special beings - its a great cautionary tale.
Luckily, the book Capital Returns alerted me to this story.
In the end, the swiftness of its demise was not covered well by the author - what really caused such an erosion in asset value? The reader is left with a few questions wrt the end of Anglo.
Of note was the fact that until the very end, the bank reported very good numbers, with low bad debts and decent provisions.
But high growth, in a small economy with overseas funding and the loan book overexposed to largely a particular sector - property - was enough of a yellow signal to stay away.
And therein lies the problem; when you see a good ROA institution, growing well and available for what is called cheap; one thinks of it as a bargain. But financial institutions are special beings - its a great cautionary tale.
Luckily, the book Capital Returns alerted me to this story.
In the end, the swiftness of its demise was not covered well by the author - what really caused such an erosion in asset value? The reader is left with a few questions wrt the end of Anglo.
May 27, 2022
Schadenfreude is what I experience the most whenever I read about corporate failures like this. Part of it is the carefully-created narrative: the first half would be displaying hubris, overconfidence, and a few unethical (if not illegal) moves by the owners. And the second half would come the downfall. In this case the downfall included lots of blaming and lawsuits by the main players against each other, which adds to the schadenfreude.
It's too bad, then, that Anglo Irish is a less popular story than most other GFC bank failures. Inasmuch as I appreciated the sections where the author described the various exposures, they weren't really international / prominent names. Maybe a European would appreciate the lists and loads of details more. The book loses a bit of lustre for me because of that. Still a recommend to buy cheap, I would say.
It's too bad, then, that Anglo Irish is a less popular story than most other GFC bank failures. Inasmuch as I appreciated the sections where the author described the various exposures, they weren't really international / prominent names. Maybe a European would appreciate the lists and loads of details more. The book loses a bit of lustre for me because of that. Still a recommend to buy cheap, I would say.
November 18, 2017
Anglo Republic: Inside the Bank that Broke Ireland by Simon Carswell is a thoroughly satisfying and compelling read. Carswell documents the rise and fall of the bank demonised by the Irish media in a superbly thorough and measured fashion. Eagerly anticipated, the volume brings together many of the tantalisingly shocking stories surrounding the high-flying executives of Anglo Irish and weaves them together with technical explanations and thorough research into an eminently readable and ultimately fulfilling expose of the big decisions and the the mindsets that led to the downfall of the institution.
I was eager to read the book to understand the fuller story behind the headlines and I was not disappointed. Like most Irish these days I would love to see the publicly identified culprits behind the mess at Anglo Irish hanged, drawn and quartered. Their lavish lifestyles and seemingly reckless disregard for the implications of their decisions seemed clear and unforgivable. Surprisingly, with the presentation of the fuller picture, I found myself more understanding of the human dimension to the story. While not able to accept the reckless actions, one comes away with a fuller appreciation of how small risks lead to larger risks and how personalities combine to catalyse specific and fatal outcomes. The failure of regulators and of the government to deal with the developing situation and their own culpability is made blatantly clear. In both of their cases, intentions may well have been laudable, but the capacity to undertake the hard and measured decisions to deal with the crisis at the appropriate time and in an effective way were crucially lacking. Lack of information and a recurring need to choose the seemingly least damaging solution lead to not just wrong, but potentially disastrous results for all parties. Unwillingness to gain a full understanding, or willingness to countenance borderline illegal activities in hope of a future salvation that will excuse such actions by regulators and politicians are identified. The parallel with the way in which decisions are made and justified within Anglo is hard to miss. While the government operates with the misperceived interests of the country and heart, the bank operates with similarly dangerous misdefined interests of shareholders. Both are complicit and held to account. The human face of Anglo is never doubted, we learn that inter-bank rivalries, failures to maintain relationships and implicit instructions from the central bank are (perhaps not unknowingly) misinterpreted leading to what can be judged as clearly illegal in the greater perspective but are muddlier on the firing line.
The book is not an attempt to make apologies or to allow for the excusing of what are deeply illegal and ingenuous actions, but surprisingly they put Anglo and its executives into a broader picture of mistakes, misdeals and inability to comprehend the true gravity of the situation throughout the Irish and european banking community and the financial regulators and the Irish government itself. There is a point when all become victims of their earlier actions and generally helplessly caught up in the current of the larger economic situation - if the books posits any question for the reader, its a matter of when particular actors hit this point of losing control.
Sean Quinn comes out of the story particularly badly. His seemingly all or nothing gamble on taking options on Anglo shares is pictured as a naive move that leads to his manipulation by self-concerned bankers. Anglo's efforts to find a solution to his altruistically presented attempt to take a dominant equity position in the bank are made surprisingly undertandable and desperately necessary (allowing for some sense of paranoia on the banks part). Suddenly the Maple 10 seem far less culpable in this strange affair - in this volume presented as largely names signed to agreements (although some seem to have benefited substantially largely without their own direct intent). Quinn is painted as simple man driven by good intentions but caught up in machinations far behind his control. This portrayal seems somewhat less than plausible given his demonstrable past business acumen. He is painted as no different from many of these rags to riches celtic tiger billionaires. From simple backgrounds, many built commendable firms through hard work and determination. At some point though they, like Sean Fitzpatrick, became deal junkies and just couldn't stop even when the numbers ceased to add up. They all fall victims to the carefully manipulated and contrived financial pictures they were publicly presenting.
Clearly the entire experience is a story of hubris and greed, but Carswell has extend this simple reflection into a deeper appreciation of the times and circumstances that lead smart businessmen to attempt stupid things.
For all the Irish taxpayers wondering where their and subsequent generations livelihoods are being spent and what mentalities surrounded the mad celtic tiger drive for growth, this book is required reading. It is crafted in a most readable fashion and presents a very balanced and surprisingly rational look at what would otherwise be a creative tale, were it not all too true.
I was eager to read the book to understand the fuller story behind the headlines and I was not disappointed. Like most Irish these days I would love to see the publicly identified culprits behind the mess at Anglo Irish hanged, drawn and quartered. Their lavish lifestyles and seemingly reckless disregard for the implications of their decisions seemed clear and unforgivable. Surprisingly, with the presentation of the fuller picture, I found myself more understanding of the human dimension to the story. While not able to accept the reckless actions, one comes away with a fuller appreciation of how small risks lead to larger risks and how personalities combine to catalyse specific and fatal outcomes. The failure of regulators and of the government to deal with the developing situation and their own culpability is made blatantly clear. In both of their cases, intentions may well have been laudable, but the capacity to undertake the hard and measured decisions to deal with the crisis at the appropriate time and in an effective way were crucially lacking. Lack of information and a recurring need to choose the seemingly least damaging solution lead to not just wrong, but potentially disastrous results for all parties. Unwillingness to gain a full understanding, or willingness to countenance borderline illegal activities in hope of a future salvation that will excuse such actions by regulators and politicians are identified. The parallel with the way in which decisions are made and justified within Anglo is hard to miss. While the government operates with the misperceived interests of the country and heart, the bank operates with similarly dangerous misdefined interests of shareholders. Both are complicit and held to account. The human face of Anglo is never doubted, we learn that inter-bank rivalries, failures to maintain relationships and implicit instructions from the central bank are (perhaps not unknowingly) misinterpreted leading to what can be judged as clearly illegal in the greater perspective but are muddlier on the firing line.
The book is not an attempt to make apologies or to allow for the excusing of what are deeply illegal and ingenuous actions, but surprisingly they put Anglo and its executives into a broader picture of mistakes, misdeals and inability to comprehend the true gravity of the situation throughout the Irish and european banking community and the financial regulators and the Irish government itself. There is a point when all become victims of their earlier actions and generally helplessly caught up in the current of the larger economic situation - if the books posits any question for the reader, its a matter of when particular actors hit this point of losing control.
Sean Quinn comes out of the story particularly badly. His seemingly all or nothing gamble on taking options on Anglo shares is pictured as a naive move that leads to his manipulation by self-concerned bankers. Anglo's efforts to find a solution to his altruistically presented attempt to take a dominant equity position in the bank are made surprisingly undertandable and desperately necessary (allowing for some sense of paranoia on the banks part). Suddenly the Maple 10 seem far less culpable in this strange affair - in this volume presented as largely names signed to agreements (although some seem to have benefited substantially largely without their own direct intent). Quinn is painted as simple man driven by good intentions but caught up in machinations far behind his control. This portrayal seems somewhat less than plausible given his demonstrable past business acumen. He is painted as no different from many of these rags to riches celtic tiger billionaires. From simple backgrounds, many built commendable firms through hard work and determination. At some point though they, like Sean Fitzpatrick, became deal junkies and just couldn't stop even when the numbers ceased to add up. They all fall victims to the carefully manipulated and contrived financial pictures they were publicly presenting.
Clearly the entire experience is a story of hubris and greed, but Carswell has extend this simple reflection into a deeper appreciation of the times and circumstances that lead smart businessmen to attempt stupid things.
For all the Irish taxpayers wondering where their and subsequent generations livelihoods are being spent and what mentalities surrounded the mad celtic tiger drive for growth, this book is required reading. It is crafted in a most readable fashion and presents a very balanced and surprisingly rational look at what would otherwise be a creative tale, were it not all too true.
June 17, 2019
Not the best book on a financial crisis but a great insight into how out of touch a management team can be with reality. At one stage they had nearly bankrupted the Irish economy but weren't sure the bank couldn't continue trading!
October 15, 2021
Excellent book into how Anglo collapsed the Irish economy, as someone who was too young at the time to really realise what happened, this gave a great breakdown into how the conditions of the Irish economy, its politicians, its bankers, and its borrowers led Ireland to financial ruin in 2008.
August 1, 2018
Mandatory Reading to understand why the Irish Banking System needed to be bailed out and led to the collapse of the Irish Economy. Reads like a thriller novel !
December 15, 2019
Excellent read. If 50% of of it is true, that would still be pretty hard to stomach. Any retribution for the mess these guys made?.....
October 26, 2024
One of my favorite 2008-2009 Financial Crisis books. Very well written.
February 8, 2014
Enormous insight into the mechanics of a real estate bubble. Even though we got used to banking mismanagement since 2007, the total lack of risk understanding or a moral compass of the Anglo Irish bank senior executives is without comparison. How Sean FitzPatrick did not end up on the wrong end of a pitchfork is beyond me.
Simon Carswell does a great job incorporating all the aspects of the Anglo disaster (i.e. the involvement of the Financial Regulator and of Ireland's richest and most clueless man) into a fascinating, page turner. Five stars.
Simon Carswell does a great job incorporating all the aspects of the Anglo disaster (i.e. the involvement of the Financial Regulator and of Ireland's richest and most clueless man) into a fascinating, page turner. Five stars.
February 27, 2013
A tough read for me, although I enjoyed learning what caused the financial demise in Ireland. I found it hard to follow all the names of the many players in the book. Plus my lack of understanding of the financial infrastructure made reading very slow and arduous. However, I'm glad that I spent the time to read it as I learned loads and found the information intriguing and quite shocking actually.
August 3, 2014
Remarkable on the degree of personal ineptitude and dodgy dealing that goes into blowing up a country. Financial imbalances caused the Irish property boom, but that's a vague term that this book illustrates vividly. Anglo Irish Bank and it's management did some incredibly stupid things and were called geniuses for it. Jaysus, it's a great read.
July 18, 2012
Well researched and equally well written, this book is a far more compelling read than I expected
February 8, 2016
Very well done
December 7, 2013
An interesting and well-paced story of how the Irish banking crisis happened.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews