Michael Noonan must be joking if he thinks that he can just shrug his shoulders and fob the nation off with statements such as “I am quite comfortable that he (Geoghegan) should continue in that role and there is nothing in that report in the United States that would make me change that position.” And of Hodgkinson: “The Central Bank tests the fitness and probity of bankers and they had brought nothing to my attention which would change the view on AIB.”
The ex-HSBC pair who have been described as “two of the most important figures in Irish finance”, David Hodgkinson, the Allied Irish Bank (AIB) chairman, and Mike Geoghegan, one of the Government advisers on the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), have been recently appointed to their new posts under Noonan following lengthy careers at HSBC. Both rose to very senior positions in that organization, Geoghegan becoming chief executive in 2006 and Hodgkinson, after a stint in the Middle East, becoming chief operating officer, also in that year.
As detailed elsewhere on this website (and extensively on LPAC) the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) was established in 1864 to handle the British Empire’s dope money flowing from their opium trade into China. And from then to the present day that has been its raison d’être, as has just this past week been exposed by the US Senate investigation into drug and terrorist financing, headed by Senator Carl Levin.
That the specific naming of these two individuals, Hodgkinson and Geoghegan, by the US Senate Committee, apparently weighs so lightly on Finance Minister Noonan, in whose employ they currently reside, testifies to either complicity to a cover up on his part, or to his appalling incompetence. Either way, it raises very serious questions about his own probity, his intentions and his ability to discharge his duties efficiently in the service of Irish citizens.
Perhaps Mr Noonan is awaiting instructions from London before springing into action. In which case we would advise him, as he may have missed the split, that there are now two Londons! So, he should exercise care when seeking advice from there that he goes to the right door. We recommend he should approach British Labor Party Leader Ed Milliband who has called for Lord Green, AKA Stephen Green, British Trade Minister to appear before the Lords to answer some questions about his own long career as a HSBC employee.
