The European Central Bank was guilty of a “major failure of supervision” in not restraining lenders from fueling the property bubble in Ireland, says a former prime minister. John Bruton, premier in the 1994-97 centre-right, Fine Gael-led coalition, on Monday accused British, German, Belgian and French banks of “irresponsible lending… in the hope that they too could profit from the Irish construction bubble.” Mr Bruton said in a speech to the London School of Economics that banks had “lots of information available to them about spiraling house prices in Ireland”. – FT
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