{"id":551493,"date":"2026-07-15T19:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/551493\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T19:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:58:11","slug":"central-bank-to-review-enforcement-regime-after-scathing-high-court-judgment-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/551493\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Bank to review enforcement regime after scathing High Court judgment \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Central Bank<\/a> governor Gabriel Makhlouf<\/a> said his organisation is taking a scathing High Court judgment on its handling of a fitness and probity investigation into a fund manager \u201cvery seriously\u201d and will \u201cfully\u201d implement the findings. <\/p>\n

Speaking to members of the Oireachtas finance committee on Wednesday, Makhlouf added that he has also ordered a broader external review of the bank\u2019s wider enforcement activities, and expects the person carrying this out to assess the judgment as part of their work. <\/p>\n

High Court president Judge David Barniville said in his ruling, published on April 17th, that the investigation into the funds industry executive was \u201cirretrievably tainted\u201d by errors.<\/p>\n

The man \u2013 who was not named in the ruling and who wished to retain anonymity in an interview with The Irish Times <\/a>in April \u2013 was an executive director of an Irish investment fund management company that oversaw sub-funds that fed into master funds managed by a sister company in the UK.<\/p>\n

The court refused to confirm the bank\u2019s plan to prohibit the individual for a year, albeit with the ruling coming four years after the application was made in 2022. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe High Court found that the individual\u2019s entitlement to natural and constitutional justice and basic fairness of procedures was not observed by the Central Bank in this case. I acknowledge that investigations and prohibitions carry serious implications for individuals and take the High Court\u2019s judgment very seriously,\u201d Makhlouf said. <\/p>\n

\"\"Will the State\u2019s plan for the Carlton Cinema site revitalise O\u2019Connell Street?<\/p>\n

Makhlouf noted that the bank has made a number of changes to its procedures since its officials decided in February 2022 that the individual should be prohibited, including that a ban does not now take effect until either agreed with an individual under investigation or confirmed by the High Court. <\/p>\n

He said the bank has adopted more broadly \u201cspecific recommendations around fairness, efficiency and transparency of process\u201d made by the European Central Bank\u2019s former banking supervisory chairman, Andrea Enria, in 2024 after he reviewed the regulator\u2019s executive vetting system. That was after the Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal criticised the bank\u2019s decision-making process in another case, where a funds sector executive was stopped from taking on a role. <\/p>\n

The Central Bank also plans to publish fresh guidance later this year on its approach to prohibition decisions. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also going to do a much more broad review of our enforcement activities across the bank,\u201d Makhouf said, noting that the system has seen a lot of changes in recent decades, both as a result of legislation and court rulings. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Makhlouf insisted \u2013 under intense questioning from committee members \u2013 that the Central Bank has acted lawfully in its handling of controversial Israeli bonds. <\/p>\n

The Central Bank handed over the authority last September to Luxembourg to approve a prospectus for Israeli bonds \u2013 a debt-raising programme that has been marketed in the context of the country needing funds to fight the Gaza war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, with Ireland still the so-called home member state for the purposes of Israeli bond prospectus regulation, the Central Bank may face being asked by Israel to approve a fresh prospectus or another transfer of authority when the current document expects in September. Makhlouf declined to comment on whether any discussions about this have taken place. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to repeat what I have said before to this committee that I am appalled and saddened by the horrific loss of life and destruction we have seen in Gaza and the wider Middle East. I speak for everyone at the Central Bank when I say that we want to see an end to hostilities by all parties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are required to approve a prospectus if it meets the standards of completeness, comprehensibility and consistency imposed by the regulation.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf said his organisation is taking a scathing High Court judgment on its handling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,4505,28228,3409,61,60,3410],"class_list":["post-551493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-central-bank","tag-gabriel-makhlouf","tag-gaza-strip","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}