In its Annual Report, which was published just three months before the government was forced to unconditionally guarantee the deposits of the Irish-owned banks, the Central Bank said : " The banks have negligible exposure to the sub-prime sector and they remain relatively healthy by the standard measures of capital, profitability and asset quality.
12.
The incentive for merchants and other parties to accept them lay in the fact that as long as the original signature ( which the buyer is supposed to place on the cheque in ink as soon as they receive the cheque ) and the signature made at the time the cheque is used is the same, the cheque's issuer will unconditionally guarantee payment of the face amount even if the cheque was fraudulently issued, stolen, or lost.
