John Bowe (financier)

Background

A native of County Laois, Bowe was Director of Capital Markets of Anglo Irish Bank Corp. PLC (known as Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Limited). Other positions he held include NOL Group's businesses and operations in the US, Canada and Latin America, and President of Americas of NOL Group of Neptune Orient Lines Ltd.

Bowe became a number of former members of Anglo Irish Bank who were at the centre of a controversy in June 2013, concerning recorded comments they made some years previously in matters during the run-up to Ireland's economic crisis. His comments included:

If they saw the enormity of it up front, they might decide they have a choice. You know what I mean? “They might say the cost to the taxpayer is too high…if it doesn’t look too big at the outset…if it doesn’t look big, big enough to be important, but not too big that it kind of spoils everything, then, then I think you can have a chance.

In 2013, upon the release of the recordings, Bowe categorically denied misleading the Irish government in the lead-up to the bailout:

In a statement issued in, Mr. Bowe said:

I categorically deny the allegation that I, at any time, misled the Central Bank or was aware of any strategy to do so. There were extensive discussions with the Central Bank particularly in or around the time period of September 2008. The phone call on 18 September 2008 was three days after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, and therefore took place during a period of severe and unprecedented market dislocation.