Vol. 495 No. 1
223 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Finance his views on the implications for the stability of the Irish commercial banking sector of the recent collapse of the New York based speculative investment fund Long-Term Capital Management in view of the implications of that collapse for the theory of the free market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19212/98]
Irish banks are required to adhere to limits with regard to their exposures to counterparties. The requirement for limiting exposures are set out in the Central Bank of Ireland's notice concerning the implementation of the EU directive on the monitoring and control of large exposures of credit institutions. Banks are required to limit their exposures to a single or connected counter-party to 25 per cent of their own funds. In effect, this means that a bank with own funds of £100 million could only have an exposure, both on and off balance sheet, of £25 million to a single counterparty. The Central Bank of Ireland monitors adherence to this requirement and in times of uncertainty, as was the case with Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), increases its level of surveillance. I am informed by the Central Bank that there are no exposures of any significance by Irish banks to LTCM.
