A former executive at Anglo Irish Bank Corp. said it would be "fantastic" if the state took over the lender, as "we'd all get to keep our jobs" and sang "Deutschland uber alles" as the bank won German deposits, according to tapes of 2008 conversations released last Wednesday.
John Bowe, ex-head of capital markets, spoke in the conversations with two other executives in September and October 2008, three months before the government took over the bank, the Irish Independent, which released the tapes, said. The recordings indicated the lender planned to seek an initial €7 billion ($9.2 billion) from the central bank because a commitment that size would make the authorities unwilling to let it fail. Bowe, who left the firm in 2012, said the bank probably needed more to avert a collapse.
"I deeply regret that the language and tone I used in these internal bilateral telephone calls was both imprudent and inappropriate," Bowe said in an emailed statement. "I categorically deny the allegation that I, at any time, misled the central bank or was aware of any strategy to do so."