The former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, which became a symbol of the serious problems which hit Ireland's once-booming Celtic Tiger economy in the credit crunch, was declared bankrupt yesterday.

Sean FitzPatrick, who owes his former employer €110 million and used to be one of Ireland's top bankers, was allowed to declare bankruptcy by the High Court in Dublin, a court official said.

Mr FitzPatrick resigned from the bank in December 2008 after admitting he had failed to disclose an €87 million loan by moving it in and out of the bank for a period of eight years. He was released without charge in March after being questioned by authorities in a massive investigation over alleged financial irregularities.

Anglo Irish, which was nationalised last year, recorded the biggest-ever loss in Irish corporate history - €12.7 billion - in March.

The bank, like many of its rivals, was battered by the global financial crisis, a deep recession and a property market meltdown, resulting in billions of euro of bad debts - loans that have been written off.

The government's National Assets Management Agency is buying mainly soured property loans with a book value of some €81 billion from the nation's crisis-hit banks.