2012 - The Year of Anglo

A lot of people are going to find it difficult in 2012, what with the economy returning to recession and all.  But for one group, it will be business as usual:  Anglo-Irish creditors.  And that business will mean that they will be repaid in full. 

Indeed, it’s already started.  On Tuesday, a payment of €2.1 million was made to unsecured bondholders.  Okay, its small beer compared to the billions Anglo is going to cost Irish people each year for the next two decades or so.  Still, nice money for those who gambled on a seedy little bank back in the roller-coaster days (the bond was issued in January 2007).

But that is only the beginning.  Here is the schedule of repayments for Anglo and Irish Nationwide creditors in 2012, courtesy of Nama Wine Lake.

In 2012, Anglo/Irish Nationwide will be paying back €6.3 billion to its creditors – of which €2.6 billion is unsecured.

And then there’s next instalment in the never-ending Promissory Note story:  €3.1 billion paid by the Government to Anglo to help them pay off their creditors.

Now, no one believes this is rational or equitable or justified.  Even Government Ministers don’t believe it is.  So what does it say for our politics that we are forced to continue a repayment regime for non-existent banks that could end up costing the state over €80 billion over the next 20 years even though no one on this island believes this is rational or equitable or justified?  Not a lot.

So what can we do?  Do something different, do a different politics, do what is rational and equitable and justified.  Build the biggest possible coalition – labour and business, right and left-wings, young and old, PAYE and self-employed, Liverpool and Man United supporters – around one simple demand:

STOP MAKING THE PAYMENTS

Stop paying the unsecured bondholders, stop paying the promissory note.  Stop this economic madness.

There’s not much time left.  The next big payment is due on January 25^th; a €1.25 billion payment to unsecured bondholders.  The next big drawdown on public finances will take place at the end of March; the €3.1 billion promissory note.  The very first step is to start telling people – through the social media, through the mainstream media, in the pubs and shops, getting on the rooftop and shouting it to our neighbours.  The next step is to tell people that it doesn’t have to be.

It’s either that or we accept that 2012 will be the Year of Anglo.

Personally, I don’t want to live in that year.

* * *

NOTE:  I refuse to refer to the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation – the amalgamation of Anglo-Irish and Irish Nationwide.  Even the title ‘Resolution’ is an insult to our intelligence.  I refuse to participate in this offensive make-over. 

Comments

[Kieran Sullivan]

Hopefully, at this stage, most people will have heard of this Co. Cork group:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ballyhea-bondholder-bailout-protest/162154057174719

[John Salmon]

Now juxtapose the obscenity of repaying these Anglo bondholders with the witless, dare I say delusional claptrap of Brian Hayes, writing in yesterday's Indo. It is obvious, painfully so, that yet again we have a Gvernment which has been captured by the insiders. Of course this 'debt' should not be repaid. That they would attempt to suggest our return to the bond market is dependent on repaying this is utterly risible. The original bonds were sold off long ago, we have given vulture funds the deal of the century. Many of them have purchased Anglo debt at less than 50 cents in the euro. This is real economic treason and clear evidence that a small unaccountable cabal at EU and even Gevernment level are effectively enemies of the people.

[Teresa Kavanagh]

It's good to see these figures in black and white ,is there any possibility that the above could be printed as in election posters type size etc and pasted all over the country,what's to stop it?
We need to get up off our ass and DO something ,the middle classes are silent and are afraid to express what they privately feel for fear of ridicule .
I am going to do something , I can't stand idly by and watch our country be pillaged and plundered in broad daylight any more .

[Seamus Coffey]

Hi Michael,

This is a huge issue and there is no doubt that repaying these bonds is a massive waste. However, the figures given here look at little high.

The table indicates that €6,272 million of IBRC bonds will mature this year alone.

Last April the Central Bank released details of debt issued by the covered banks for a date early in 2011. The total for Anglo and INBS was €7,031 million. It is unlikely that 90% of this would mature in 2012.

In fact a lot of it matured in 2011. The last Interim Report for Anglo was for the six months to the end of June 2011. The Balance Sheet shows that Anglo had €5,684 million of bonds in issue at that time. The table here has €5,641 million of bonds maturing in 2012.

These figures are not compatible with the $1,000 million bond that Anglo repaid last November.

Either the numbers in Central Bank release and Anglo balance sheet are wrong or the numbers in the table here are wrong.

This doesn't make the issue any less palatable assuming the CB/Anglo figures are correct I would guess that there are something over €4,000 million of Anglo bonds left in total.