'I'm sorry', says boss of failed bank

Sean FitzPatrick, who was chief executive officer before becoming chairman, said in December 2008 he had kept shareholders in the dark for years about loans worth 80m euros he had received from Anglo Irish Bank. Police arrested him last year as part of a fraud investigation but he was released 24 hours later without charge.

"I am very happy to put my hands up. I am very happy to apologise to all my creditors. I don't feel ashamed, but I do feel regret, very serious regret, and I am sorry that it is going to cause people losses," an Irish Sunday newspaper quoted him as saying.

The newspaper said FitzPatrick's comments came in a series of interviews for The FitzPatrick Tapes, a book in which the banker gives an account of the bank's collapse.

Ireland's justice minister said last month four suspects had been identified in a long-running fraud investigation about the events leading up to the nationalisation.