In 1971, he became the secretary of the Irish Independent Building Society, founded in 1873. At the time he was not a homeowner. The building society had five employees and assets of €2 million. In his first year at the helm, the company made a profit of just €12,000 and Fingleton had to wait three years for his first company car. The building society changed its name to Irish Nationwide in 1975 and began to expand. The key to its expansion was marketing, using the media to build the profile of the business. The emphasis was on the use of
agents rather than opening branches. Fingleton built it up into a network of 50 branches and 40 branch agents, helped by the takeover of the
Garda Building Society, Irish Mutual and Metropolitan Building Society and enacted a flexible
mortgage policy in the 1980s. Fingleton cultivated relationships with the press and benefitted by receiving free
publicity. Many journalists in the 1980s received mortgages from the Irish Nationwide. Fingleton always stressed that these were all above board. During the 1980s, when he was at the height of his media profile, he sent journalists a Christmas card portraying himself as
Santa Claus. Fingleton drew a salary of €1.3m in 2005, including a €500,000 bonus making his earnings on a par with chief executives of the larger banks. Landsbanki who were initially attracted by Irish Nationwide's deposit book, backed off, unnerved by the level of the society's commercial lending. The Icelandic bank collapsed nine months later.
Loans to politicians and other public figures As well as arranging loans for journalists, Fingleton arranged loans for other political and public figures. In December 2009, after interviewing
Olivia Greene, a former home loans supervisor at Irish Nationwide, Prime Time reported that former Minister for Finance
Charlie McCreevy was loaned €1.6m for a €1.5m property by Irish Nationwide, when the building society wasn't supposed to be providing 100 per cent loans. He also provided a loan for
Celia Larkin, the ex-partner of former
taoiseach Bertie Ahern, without requiring any proof of income. John Mara, the son of former
Fianna Fáil director of elections
PJ Mara, was also named in court as having drawn down big loans, including a €1.5 million loan for which Fingleton did not seek any additional security. Greene also said Fianna Fáil Senator
Francis O'Brien and Senator
Don Lydon were given fast-track loans of €7m and €3m
Effects of the economic crisis and retirement The performance of the building society
crashed in 2008 as bad loans spiralled. Irish Nationwide made a pretax loss of €280 million for the year, after writing off €464 million on bad loans, a 10-fold increase on the 2007 figure. In the run-up to the 2008 annual board meeting, with Fingleton approaching 70, when he would be required to retire as a director, the board considered tabling a motion that would permit him to stay on for another two years. The idea was abandoned and Fingleton refused to stay on as the chief executive unless he was paid the same amount as in 2007, when he had received a €1m bonus. At the end of April 2009, Fingleton retired, buffeted by criticism for receiving the €1m "bonus" in 2008. Fingleton received €221k in pay for the final four months of his employment, up to April 2009. This amount, calculated on an annual basis, exceeded the cap of €500k imposed by the Government for top bankers. As the depth of the society's problems became apparent, Fingleton came under public and political pressure to return the €1m bonus. In April 2010, he offered to give it to charity, but this proposal was rejected by the Irish government. As of December 2010 there was no evidence that the money had been returned. ==Personal and family==