Anglo Irish Bank's nationalization

Anglo Irish Bank had built its business almost entirely around commercial and residential property lending during Ireland's 'Celtic Tiger' boom, when weak regulatory oversight let the bank and its rivals borrow heavily on international money markets to fund an increasingly overheated property market. As that boom turned to bust from 2007, the bank's share price and asset values collapsed — from a peak value of about €13 billion in 2007 to roughly €242 million within a year — and matters worsened further when it emerged in December 2008 that chairman Sean FitzPatrick had concealed more than €87 million in personal loans from the bank's own disclosures, forcing his resignation. With the bank unable to raise private capital and facing an escalating deposit outflow, the Irish government announced its nationalization on January 15, 2009, and legislation enabling the takeover passed the following week. The bank's eventual wind-down cost Irish taxpayers tens of billions of euros and became one of the central drivers of Ireland's own sovereign bailout from the EU and IMF in 2010.