Banking Expert Peter Mathews on fixing Ireland's Banking Crisis

Peter Mathews

Peter Mathews was educated at Gonzaga College and UCD Dublin where he obtained a B. Comm. and Executive M.B.A.  He is a qualified Chartered Accountant with extensive experience in Audit, Taxation and Consultancy with Coopers and Lybrand (now PwC) Dublin in the 1970’s.  In 1979 he joined ICC Bank in Dublin and managed the Enterprise Development, Hi Tech and FDI Lending Sections of the Bank.  In 1985 he was appointed to develop and manage the Property Development, Construction and Investment Lending Section, a new specialist area of lending for the Bank.  Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s the Property Section made a significantly solid contribution to the Bank’s overall lending activities. Peter provided carefully appraised Term Loan facilities and finance as well as Performance Bond underwriting facilities to hundreds of Builders, Developers and Property Investors in Ireland and the UK during the 1980’s and 1990’s. He was commended by the Bank for outstanding work on a special assignment in the area of non-performing loans, loans work-outs, restructurings and recoveries achieving substantial write-backs to profit for ICC Bank plc during the1980’s.  In 1999 he set up an independent Banking – Property and Finance – Consultancy practice in Dublin, consulting and brokering property related deals (mainly disposals in period post 2004), and advising in Zoning and Planning matters, for clients including a Public Body, property investors, family landowners, developers and construction groups.  Post 2004, in an over-heated property market, he concentrated on advising and assisting clients to dispose of land and property.

In 2001 Peter was appointed General Director and Expert Consultant to Lietuvos Infrastrukturos Pletros Fondas [LIPF], an equity start-up Property Development Fund Project in Lithuania funded jointly by the Lithuanian government and the EU under the EU Phare Programme. He head-hunted, hired and trained a small team of highly qualified Lithuanian professionals who quickly became expert in conservative property financing methods and fully conversant with all the techniques of Property development and investment appraisal used in the established property markets around the world.  LIPF now has solidly based expertise in making “mezzanine” investments in commercial developments throughout Lithuania and includes among its clients BNTP Baltic Real Estate Developments, a leading commercial property developer based in Klaipeda.   Peter’s LIPF contract was completed in 2002.

Since 2002, Peter was involved in several significant land deals, property development deals and investment transactions mainly in Dublin and London. He also advises on City and County Development Plan Zoning matters with noted success. He maintains close business contact with Lithuania and is a frequent business visitor to the capital, Vilnius.  He was instrumental in finding excellent premises in Vilnius for the Irish Embassy which was officially opened in summer 2006.

In addition to Property and Finance Consulting, from May 2004 up to his resignation, for prudential reasons, in May 2008, Peter was a director of an Irish Incorporated and Irish resident Financial Assets Holding Company, sponsored by KBC Bank, with assets of US $5.0 billion and alternate director of other companies. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, has served on the Main Committee of the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants and chaired several of the Society’s sub-Committees. He is also a member of the Irish Taxation Institute.  He is a former President of the Gonzaga Past Pupils Union (1990-91), served on the Board of St. Mary’s Primary N.S. Belmont Avenue, Donnybrook, and has a wide range of sports interests including Tennis, Golf, swimming and Rugby.  He is married to Susan and they have 4 children James (26), John (25), David (21) and Maria (18).