A survey of the exposures of Irish banks published in the Financial Stability Report shows that the domestic banking system has no significant direct exposures to US sub prime mortgages and essentially negligible exposures through investments and through links with other financial companies or special purpose vehicles.
In addition, the exposure of domestic institutions to hedge funds and private equity is very low by international standards. Secondly, given the extent of the disruption to normal market functioning internationally in recent months, it is inevitable that access to liquidity in the interbank market by Irish banks, like all banks, would be affected.