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The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) declined to comment on Monday on whether Davy will be involved in an auction of Government bonds this week, with the brokerage continuing to grapple with a bond-deal scandal as the debt agency confirmed that it will be raising up to €1.5 billion on Thursday.
NTMA is the only Irish-owned firm among the 15 primary dealers of Government bonds recognised by the NTMA. All are obliged as primarily dealers to find buyers for the bonds in Thursday’s bond auction, unless they are stood down.
The NTMA said on Monday that it plans to sell between €1 billion and €1.5 billion of long-term bonds on Thursday. A spokesman for the NTMA declined to comment on Davy’s potential involvement in the auction.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath said on Sunday that the NTMA was awaiting a response from Davy on the debt agency’s concerns about the company’s behaviour after three top figures at Davy resigned the previous day amid the fallout from a Central Bank fine and rebuke over a breach of market rules.
Davy chief executive Brian McKiernan, deputy chairman Kyran McLaughlin and head of bonds Barry Nangle have resigned. The Irish Times reported last week that all three as well as former chief executive Tony Garry and one-time head of institutional equities David Smith were among a group of 16 Davy employees that participated sought to make a profit by taking the other side of a bond deal involving a client in 2014 – without telling him or the firm’s compliance team.
The Central Bank fined Davy and reprimanded the firm strongly last Tuesday for breaching market rules in relation to the deal.