Anglo Irish Bank’s shares had already lost 97 per cent of their value by Thursday. Sean FitzPatrick’s resignation as chairman, over €87m of loans extended to him by his own bank, has given its investors even more to worry about. Mr FitzPatrick’s feather-bedding was not a one-off. He steadily accumulated more debt every year, shuffled it off to another bank, and then shovelled it back to Anglo Irish after its books had closed at year end. Why such bed and breakfasting? The bank will not say. Moreover, he was not the only senior director to do so. By September, total loans to directors were €150m, three times higher than the year before.

Such murky dealings are the last thing Ireland’s banks need as the government prepares a €10bn recapitalisation package for the sector. Although the transfers were not illegal, the strongest criticism Anglo Irish has so far mustered about its former chairman is that the loans were “inappropriate from a transparency point of view”.