Irish comedy grows darker; some will not find it funny

"We used to provide Irish developers with loan terms, but insist of due diligence. They would then go off to Anglo Irish and be given the cash with no need for any paperwork:" so said a leading European real estate lender at lunch this week. Today the FT carries a number of articles covering the Irish banking scandal, one containing a quote from Patrick Honohan, governor of the Central Bank, saying "as the dust settles it is clear that most of the damage in this crisis - reputational and financial - has been done by just one firm, Anglo Irish Bank."

The specialist property lender was nationalised in January 2009 at the behest of Honahan's predecessor, John Hurley, who seemed to be mostly asleep on the job before he was replaced last September by Professor Honohan. The chairman of Anglo Irish, Sean Fitzpatrick was arrested and questioned last month over allegations of financial impropriety. However, as the FT says today "Anglo has become the nation's whipping boy, but all of Ireland's banks played their part in the crisis."

What might all this mean for those on this side of the water for those property companies who supped a little too closely with Anglo Irish - or even some other Irish bank for that matter? Fine, if the loans were blindly granted without due diligence.Stupid bank. Not fine, if hidden commissions were paid to any of the parties or advisors involved in the loan. 

Those with a guilty conscience may have an anxious wait for a call from the Guarda: but given the sheer scale of the scandal that call is unlikely to be made for a long while, if ever. But any property company who borrowed from any Irish Bank between 2000 and 2008 might just have their lawyers take a good look at the paperwork. Just in case, you understand. Just to be sure. Better to be ready in case there is a knock on the door. This may all feel like the comedy described yesterday. But, for some, it could, one far off day, turn to reputational tragedy.