but again the authorities did nothing. It required a €5.4 billion Government bailout, leaving it effectively in State ownership. A letter which the FR received concerning the legality of the illicit loans by the Building Society to Sean FitzPatrick had "gone missing". Management at Irish Nationwide used to arrange meetings with the FR for late on a Friday afternoon, knowing that the regulator's staff would not want for the encounter to last for more than an hour because it would nibble into their weekend. The chief executive was asked at a parliamentary committee "In regard to baseline qualifications, if your staff is regulating the financial sector, should it not be the case where they should have the bare minimum required in the market as well, a qualified financial adviser status, or they've gone through certain industry exams. It's obviously important to have." But the FR chief disagreed: "I don't agree with that. But I think I'm conflicted because I've never taken a professional exam in my life." June 2010 reports on the financial crisis did not ask the opinion of their consumer consultative panel, who in a statement said it was "very disappointed that, in particular, the report by the FR's ultimate head did not refer to the work of the panel in highlighting many of the failings of the regulator in the past number of years." Fresh areas of concern included the lack of minute-taking at senior levels in the Financial Regulator and among its board. "If this is the situation that prevails, then this has to be a source of concern regarding the standard of governance." One of the reports noted that the Financial Regulator had found substantial departures from credit policy during inspections of banks, but failed adequately to follow up on its concerns. Secondly intrusive demands from regulatory staff could be and were set aside after direct representations were made to senior regulators. Two months later, it emerged that the FR authorised the Quinn Group (which subsequently went into administration) to borrow €169 million from Anglo Irish Bank in order to buy Anglo Irish shares (which subsequently had to be nationalised at a cost of €5,500 for every man, woman and child in the State). Its actions were described as "like the Vatican running an abortion clinic." On her September 2010 state tour to Russia, the President of Ireland Mary McAleese, highlighting the importance of competence,