Patrick Neary

Patrick Neary, an Irish accountant and public servant, was Financial Regulator at the time of Ireland's financial crisis in 2008, including the issuance of a State guarantee for the country's major banks. His role in the crisis has been subject to significant criticism.

Early life Patrick Neary came from County Kilkenny, and studied at St Kieran's College, Kilkenny. He attended University College Dublin for one year, studying the Classics, leaving to help in his family's horticultural business. He subsequently joined the Central Bank of Ireland in 1971.

Career Neary began in the Central Bank in a junior role, and was promoted over three decades, reaching a position as head of supervision for securities and stock exchanges. Cases he worked on included two of three Irish bank collapses prior to the Anglo-Irish Bank crisis - those of Irish Trust Bank in 1976 and Merchant Banking in 1982 - and that of Bank of Ireland acquisition First New Hampshire Bank. In 2009, there were criticisms of the authority's work "stress-testing" Irish banks, and the weight placed on bad debt risk on property loans, as well as loans from key players in Anglo-Irish Bank. Economist David McWilliams has described Neary as "the worst financial regulator the world has ever seen." At the 2015 enquiry, Neary also admitted it was a mistake to print golf balls featuring the Regulator's logo.