Controversial memos between some of the most senior officials in the Financial Regulator's office and Anglo Irish Bank about "circular transactions" with Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) were passed onto the Director of Corporate Enforcement months ago, the regulator has disclosed.

The memos, effectively transcripts of phone calls between the Financial Regulator's staff and Anglo Irish executives were published in full by the Sunday Tribune some months ago, sparking a political row in the Dáil.

The memos suggest that senior staff at the Financial Regulator gave tacit approval to the movement of deposits between IL&P and Anglo Irish last year, as part of a "green jersey" agenda operating between some banks.

The Financial Regulator refused to say whether it agreed with the comments included in the transcripts by its own staff. However, it said all the material in question had been passed to officers working with Paul Appleby, who heads up the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

The regulator also refused to say whether staff might face disciplinary procedures or sanctions if the transcripts were validated and investigated internally.

The memos, seen by the Sunday Tribune, concern billions of euros in deposits on the books of Anglo Irish which flowed originally from other banks, but mainly from IL&P.

The transcripts include a reference to these amounts appearing in the accounts of Anglo Irish bank but not in the actual ratios submitted to the regulator. An Anglo official is recorded as saying: "It won't appear in the ratios, no, it's excluded from the ratios, it's going back out today and sort of over the next three or four days."

The official from the Financial Regulator's office is recorded as saying: "Okay, that's grand, right I think that's everything''.

A separate Anglo Irish Bank internal audit report, also seen by the Sunday Tribune, says that when finance director of the bank Willie McAteer explained the plan to manage Anglo's balance sheet coming up to year end, he was given an endorsement by Patrick Neary, the head of the regulator's office. "Fair play to you, Willie,'' the report suggests Neary said. The Financial Regulator has always expressed reluctance to comment on whether this conversation took place.

It is understood the Financial Ombudsman Joe Meade has also seen the transcripts published in this newspaper in February. It is believed Appleby's office has the transcripts but is looking for more context on how the phone calls happened.

The controversies over transfers between IL&P and Anglo Irish led to the resignation of IL&P chief executive Denis Casey and other senior directors.