Michael Fingleton, Irish Nationwide chief who cost taxpayers €5.4bn, dies at 88

From seminary to building society

Michael Fingleton, who has died aged 88, was born in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo in January 1938, the son of a garda. He attended boarding school at St Nathy's College in Ballaghadereen, Co Roscommon, before entering All Hallows, a seminary run by the Vincentian order in Dublin. He left before taking vows. His son William told the funeral at St Anne's parish church in Shankill on Friday that Fingleton later explained to his daughter Eileen why he had left the seminary.

It wasn't the chastity or poverty that caused him to leave. He could have easily lived with that. It was the obedience. He simply didn't like being told what to do.

Fingleton joined Allied Irish Finance in 1961, studying commerce at night at University College Dublin and qualifying as a certified accountant. He later qualified as a barrister. A stint with the State body the Dairy Disposal Agency and work with the charity Concern in Nigeria followed. William recounted that his father was once flown into a rebel-held village in Biafra "by a crazy Italian pilot with a suitcase of money" to free priests and nuns held hostage. Fingleton returned to Ireland in 1971.

Building Irish Nationwide

That year, Fingleton joined the Irish Industrial Benefit Building Society, which had five employees, one branch and IR£2.3 million in assets. He convinced the board to rename it Irish Nationwide Building Society and to expand outside Dublin. Over 38 years as managing director and then chief executive, he grew assets to €16 billion by 2007. Irish Nationwide lent to people who would have struggled to borrow elsewhere, at higher rates than the banks.

By the time of the 2008 crash, the society had a loan book of €8.18 billion, four-fifths of which went to developers rather than new homeowners. On a pound-for-pound basis, it was the costliest of the banks that required a bailout. The rescue cost the government €5.4 billion. In 2011, INBS was rolled into Irish Anglo to create what was described as a "zombie bank."

Public enemy

Fingleton and Anglo Irish's FitzPatrick became public enemies number one and two. Anglo Irish Bank had produced losses of €12.7 billion. FitzPatrick died in 2021 at age 73. In 2008, when the crisis hit, Fingleton was estimated to be worth €75 million. He received a €1 million bonus in the year before the crash, pledged to repay it, and never did. At the Dail banking inquiry in 2015, Fingleton said he did not "regret any decision I took."

His family's statement said he expressed deep regret for his role in losses suffered by the taxpayer but remained adamant that characterisations of him as a man who lost the taxpayer €5.4 billion were "factually incorrect and would not stand the test of time."

Unfinished reckoning

Fingleton suffered a severe stroke in May 2018. His solicitor, Niall Clerkin, said this left him unable to effectively defend a civil case brought by liquidators for the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation, which alleged negligent mishandling leading to €6 billion in losses related to property loans. The case ran between May and October 2025. Fingleton denied the allegation of negligent mismanagement.

Fingleton died on Sunday, 2 August 2026, two days after Nama, the vehicle created to clean up the financial crisis, was officially wound up. His family noted the timing in a statement.

Perhaps the heavens were telling us a saga must end.