Taped banker quits counselling role

Leaked tapes reveal Anglo Irish Bank bosses were told to approach the Central Bank with 'arms swinging' to demand a bailout

One of three Anglo Irish Bank chiefs recorded laughing about trying to source a bailout from Irish authorities has quit as head of a counselling body.

Peter Fitzgerald, appointed spokesman when the toxic lender was rebranded, has been embroiled in a series of damning taped conversations as Anglo collapsed in 2008. A spokeswoman for the Irish Association of Alcohol and Addiction Counsellors confirmed he has resigned as its interim chief executive.

Mr Fitzgerald, who has denied any wrongdoing or misleading regulators, was heard talking to John Bowe on the eve of the Irish Government introducing the controversial 440 billion euro bank guarantee in September 2008.

They talked about Anglo chiefs trying to get seven billion euro from the Central Bank of Ireland. Mr Bowe is heard saying the Government would not walk away after making an initial payment.

Anglo was ultimately bailed out by the state with 29 billion euro. Mr Fitzgerald spent his final days in Anglo as spokesman for the rebranded institution, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.

The latest revelations from taped conversations in Anglo Irish Bank, published by the Irish Independent, hears how bosses were ordered to go down to the Central Bank with "arms swinging" to demand a multi-billion euro taxpayer bailout, latest leaked tapes reveal.

In a telephone conversation with a senior colleague, the rogue lender's then chief executive David Drumm outlines his brusque strategy for bringing cash into the bust bank.

"Get into the f**king simple speak: 'We need the moolah, you have it, so you're going to give it to us and when would that be? We'll start there'," he tells Mr Bowe.

In the latest so-called Anglo Tapes transcripts Mr Drumm says he will threaten regulators unless they write him a cheque.

"We'll be going down there with our arms swinging. I'm very clear on the proposal," he told Mr Bowe, Anglo's then director of treasury. "I'm going to keep asking the thick question: 'When, when is the cheque arriving?'"