It’s been more than eight years since Quinn Insurance Limited (QIL) went into administration, but the insolvency saga surrounding it rolls on as the Central Bank of Ireland’s public hearings, as part of an inquiry, have yet to begin.
The regulator’s pending probe centres on possible regulatory breaches involving former directors of the firm, which in 2013 was slapped with a €5 million fine after it was found that QIL had insufficient internal control mechanisms and had failed to maintain adequate solvency margins between October 2005 and March 2010. It was, however, waived because of the fact that the business was in administration.
It was in 2015 that the Central Bank announced that it would be undertaking an investigation into QIL’s former management and whether they committed contraventions prior to the company’s collapse. Ex-directors Liam McCaffrey and Kevin Lunney challenged the inquiry’s constitutionality through the High Court but lost last year.
Now a report by the Irish Independent has named the inquiry members in the QIL probe.
On the regulator’s website it lists the following as part of its inquiry panel, from which inquiry members are appointed in individual cases: James Bridgeman, John Cashin, Victor Chisese, Ita Mangan, Paul McDonald, Geoffrey McEnery, Ciara McGoldrick, Martin Moloney, Justice Daniel O’Keeffe, Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill, Marian Shanley, and Nigel Woodroffe.
Of these names, O’Neill, Mangan, and Cashin were cited by the report as the ones who will be overseeing the inquiry on QIL. The Irish Independent referred to the three as a retired High Court judge, veteran barrister, and former in-house lawyer for Zurich Insurance, respectively.
In 2011 Liberty Mutual Group completed its acquisition of QIL’s Irish insurance business.
