THE EUROPEAN Commission’s involvement in the sale of the EBS building society was “extremely frustrating”, according to the chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, John Corrigan.

The decision of the commission’s competition division to open a consultation process on the sale, “where they invited views from every Tom, Dick and Harry around Europe”, had ruled out an expedited sale, he said.

“The necessary involvement of the commission in this has been extremely frustrating to all the parties concerned. It has slowed this thing down to a snail’s pace.”

The EBS has been on the market since the first half of last year and the race has been narrowed to two final bidders – Irish Life Permanent and a private equity consortium led by Dublin firm Cardinal Capital Group backed by US buyout firms, WL Ross Co and Carlyle.

The deadline for final bids was extended to January 17th from last month after the building society’s capital bill was raised by a further €438 million under last November’s EU-IMF plan to recapitalise the banks to a higher standard.

The commission held a very strong view on competitive distortions which made the sale “extremely slow”, said Michael Torpey, head of banking functions at the NTMA, who is overseeing the process.

“We are much later than I would have preferred getting to the final bids stage in this process.”

He was hopeful of a quick resolution following the submission of final bids but “even then you have to go back and satisfy the needs of Europe”.

“I just don’t know what the pace will be,” Mr Torpey added.

The State-controlled EBS has received €875 million from the Government – €100 million in cash and €775 million through promissory notes or IOUs.

The additional €438 million required must be injected before the end of next month.