Dublin - Ireland's Financial Regulator has fined the Irish Nationwide building society 50,000 euros (67,950 dollars) following the circulation of an e-mail soliciting new deposits based on Ireland's bank guarantee, a statement said Tuesday.

The Financial Regulator said it had "reasonable cause to suspect that Irish Nationwide breached a regulatory requirement in relation to General Principle 1, Chapter 1 of the Financial Regulator's Consumer Protection Code," the statement added.

Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan had referred the e-mail circulated on October 1 by the son of Irish Nationwide chief, Michael Fingleton, seeking new deposits.

The e-mail, which had been forwarded by financial sources in London, was sent by Michael Fingleton Jr to at least one leading global bank.

Under Ireland's guarantee scheme, the society "represented the safest place to deposit money in Europe with a AAA guarantee from a country with the lowest national debt to GDP ratio of any AAA country," it read.

Irish Nationwide had failed to act professionally by sending the e- mail and with regard to the integrity of the market, the regulator said, adding the matter was now closed.

Irish Nationwide has apologized, saying its behaviour was a breach of the Financial Regulator's Consumer Protection Code.

The building society described the e-mail as "inappropriate and regrettable in the circumstances." (dpa)