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Updated 21 January, 5pm
THE SEARCH FOR the next CEO of Allied Irish Banks Plc has already started.
Current chief, David Duffy, confirmed that he is stepping down from the job this week.
“David Duffy has informed the Board of his decision to step down as CEO and Executive Director to pursue a career opportunity overseas,” a statement from the bank said on Monday.
Chairman Richard Pym held a meeting with the Finance Minister today to discuss the recruitment process.
Following the meeting, Michael Noonan said they agreed that it was in AIB’s interest that the process would begin “without delay” — with a view to having “someone with the calibre, skills and drive to lead AIB in place as soon as possible”.
A recruitment firm will be hired to help in the search and selection process. The bank has also promised to keep the Department of Finance updated on progress.
Noonan says the chairman hopes to be in a position to recommended the new boss to him “within the coming months”.
While this process is underway Mr Pym assured me that AIB would continue to drive forward with its plans and highlighted the strengths of the management team that is now in place.
“My officials and their advisor Goldman Sachs International, will continue to work with the bank’s management team on developing our plans to restructure its capital base and lay out a roadmap that will see AIB begin to return cash to the State,” he concluded.
***
Duffy has been with the bank for four years, and has served as both Executive Officer and CEO.
He is set to remain in position as the board recruits a successor, and a final departure date is yet to be agreed.
“I am very sorry to see David leave AIB. During David’s tenure as CEO the bank has been transformed from an organisation in difficulty to one which returned to profit in the first half of 2014 and which is well positioned to deliver on its strategic objectives to customers and shareholders,” Pym said on Monday.
Duffy, meanwhile, said his time at the bank had been “immensely rewarding both professionally and personally”.
“The bank is well positioned to contribute to Irish economic recovery and to serve customer needs,” he said.
“Having returned to profitability, received approval of the Bank’s Restructuring Plan and passed the recent ECB/EBA Comprehensive Assessment, I believe now is the right time for a new CEO to lead the bank through the next phase of its recovery and growth and a multi-year process of returning capital to the Irish State.
The Board, new leadership team and all members of staff have worked tirelessly to bring the bank back to a position of stability and growth and I am thankful for the support I have received.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan revealed last week that the government has hired Goldman Sachs to advise it on how to “optimise the return on AIB where more than €20 billion of taxpayers’ money has been invested”.
He said the bank had undergone a major transformation under Duffy’s stewardship.
“The extensive restructuring required is largely completed and the bank has significantly improved its relationship with new and existing customers,” he said.
“The bank has been returned to profitability and passed the recent ECB Comprehensive Assessment. The bank is now a very valuable asset for the Irish taxpayer.
Mr Duffy has built a strong and capable management team in the bank and the outlook for the bank as stated in its most recent trading update to the market is very positive.
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And prob earn 2x what he is paid by AIB
Wherever it is sell your shares in it if you have any
Yes if there’s a thing we’ve learned its that we should pay our bankers more so that they don’t leave…
We, though the state, own 99.8% of AIB. We’re stuck with it.
More like 3x. Salary will be in the region of 1.3 mill euro plus bonuses and share options .. Can’t blame him I guess …
And they will probably give him a huge bonus,before he even starts
London calling? or maybe NY, HK. Go get that huge bonus.
The traitor Noonan has appointed Goldman Sucks to sell off the AIB, which is another inside job for a fine gael pal Peter (nicotine BAT) Sutherland who was recently seen indoctrinating Simon Coveney into the Bilderberg Club…Great ‘men’ for rich grubby people who have and are now allowed to continue to profit by the destruction of the lives of ordinary Irish people by reducing them to nothing more than impotent impoverished slaves to international financial terrorism.
Goldman Sucks messed up with the UK’s Royal Mail privatisation and will do the same with the AIB, we urgently need to prevent OUR bank from falling into their hands as it will mean misery and no protection for those ordinary people with mortgage arrears. Shame on our incompetent useless government, but you know what? You the people voted them in…Either suck it up and fail your children or do something about
Paul, thanks for the tirade. Who would you appoint to advise the Minister and what would be their brief?
Where are the inaccuracies in my ‘tirade’?
Paul is a JP Morgan man.
Gutted they didn’t get the contract to manage the AIB flotation.
I presume you are being humorous regarding JP Morgan? However I believe we should keep the AIB in the hands of the citizens in order to regulate and prevent them from foreclosing on the mortgages of Irish family homes.
NAMA helped write of the debts of the wealthy only; which is shameful and corrupt and now we have to consider looking to assist the debts of the ordinary people and any profits the bank makes in the future with go to the shareholders who are the Irish people.
Worry not Paul.
The communist revolution is just 16 months away.
Adams/Boyd-Barrett 2016 & free mortgages for all!
Pheewww that’s good news, I can relax now with a victory cigarette and vodka underneath the chestnut tree with no fears for the future!!!
Would you really pass up the billions that the exchequer might get for AIB just to keep people who don’t pay their mortgages in their homes?
Because if we can make so called billions by selling, you can be sure that it is worth a lot more to someone else or else they would not buy it. In addition, our government will not get a good deal due to influential political vested interests, just look at the write off’s NAMA have given to those vested interests…€100 million written off for Siteserv (D O’Brien) and €130 million plus for Independent NewsCorp (D O’Brien).
Where are the write offs for Joe and Mrs Soap? The inflated house prices were created by vested interests and the citizens had to fall in line to have a roof over their heads. They are now suffering for the crimes of others and yet our government are prepared to punish them further, when they should be protecting them.
If we sell now it will be a paltry figure as the citizens will again have to pay for the the fall out which will ensue following repossessions and our government, once again, do not or fail to see the repercussions of their actions because to them a big press release for how great they are now is failing to see the bigger picture into the future.
at least Paul uses his name Mr Cat
I’d prefer to sell AIB and use the proceeds to pay down some of our debt than to have the government running it. Next thing you know, you’d have to go to your TD to get a loan approved.
You also seem to be suggesting that there should be one rule for those who have an AIB mortgage that they aren’t paying and another rule for people whose mortgages are with other banks.
I would prefer to renege on a debt that is not ours and use the profits from the bank on an ongoing basis to fund state projects into the future. I believe other arrangements should be put in place for those who have difficulties with other lending institutions.
Finally our politicians would have no input into commercial decisions by any bank and that all decisions would be assessed by ‘competent’ bank officials under a framework of set guidelines and properly overseen, with the benefit being equitable and fair to both the lender and the borrower instead of being one sided in favour of the bank which is currently the position.
Where would you find these ‘competent’ decision makers? What qualifies as competent?
It is too early for the Government to sell AIB shares.
Wait 10 to 20 years and get a good return for Irish Pension Funds.
Is there any logic for NAMA giving Denis O Brien – a Non Resident Irish Billionaire a wipe off of over €300Million at the expense of Irish Taxpayers
He made a profit of €15million out of installation of water meters in 2014!
Why were these contracts not given to Irish Residents?
ENDA speak up and explain?
He was probably cheaper for the Irish Water contracts and was giving a loan discount may have meant a higher recovery overall, just guessing.
@Paul Lane I fail to see why people red-thumbed you for that GS post; “What rock… et.,…”
@Mick Jenkins Erm….. Siemens offered to install the meters free of charge…..; Government declined the offer, deciding instead to give Denis the write-off plus the contract payment for installation.
With the announcement that there is over 37000 houses in arrears of two years or more. I’d say he sneaking out before the shit hits the fan. Arrears crisis mark 2 will hit and I think this government know it so are saving it for the next crowd that get in to let them deal with it. There will be a few more running from the banks in the next few months I’d say.
In 2014 there were almost 15,000 houses in arrears for more than 2 years.
I wonder how many million euro mortgages are 2 years in arrears. the bigger the mortgage the more likely to be in arrears.
AIB has returned to profit.
The arrears are stabilized, people paying the standard variable like me, and other newer customers, are paying over the interbank rate to support it.
The arrears will be worked through, slowly and steadily, to avoid crashing a brittle market. The banks have no incentive to dump 1000s of houses onto the market and erode their loan books.
This guy isn’t sneaking out. He’s been in charge of a bank that has returned to profit – whether down to him or not, there’ll be a perception that he turned things around. Wouldn’t be a hard sell to tempt a bank CEO out of a 500K job.
I’m with you,slimey banker legging it before the excrement hits the fan,if there’s one lesson the bankers learned is get out early before the collapse,let the new guy clean up
The irony of getting Goldman Sachs to advise on how to get the best value out of AIB… I’m sure their fees are very reasonable.
If they manage to eek out €20bn from an AIB flotation, they are welcome to it!
Apparently Goldman S are doing it pro bono…I kid you not!!… GS..pro bono…I almost choked on my breakfast caviar as I checked my portfolio!
Incorrect. Previous role was pro bono.
He’s right to go. When you have a minister like Noonan telling people not to invest in Aib “a bank belonging to the taxpayer” and you trying your best to make a go of it.
quite misleading – only a tiny percentage of AIB shares are not held by the government and are priced artificially high due to technical market reasons. He was advising people not to buy shares based on that artificially high price. Aib would never receive anything from such transactions anyway.
And David Duffys remark re ‘back in profit’….was it not a ‘technical adjustment of 500m€’ that allowed them to make this claim! Bankers of the world must go to language vagueness lessons!
Sometimes complexity can’t be distilled into a simplistic soundbite…
Michael Noonan was right. AIB share are overvalued!
“The bank is well positioned to contribute to Irish economic recovery and to serve customer needs”
What exactly is the bank contributing? Creating money out of thin air and then charging interest“ ….serving customer needs”? If it wasn’t for people taking out loans then you won’t be in business very long, we are serving your needs and banker bonuses for doing nothing useful unfortunately.
what exactly is the bank contributing?
Banking services, that’s what.
Do you have an ATM card, a credit card?
Do you get paid into an account, (what do they call them again, oh yes, BANK accounts)
Mortgages, car loans, savings accounts, business account services, etc etc etc..
you mightn’t like how the banks have been run but its a bit extreme to suggest that we don’t need them.
I would like to wish bankers, developers and fianna fail all the best for the future. They built this country.
David Drumm will be back in the country soon so maybe there would be an opportunity there or perhaps the bauld Seanie in Greystones………Basicaly speaking theyre all a turd cut in various shapes !!
Could he take Richie with him, maybe???
Seanie Fitzpatrick the perfect replacement !!!!
I think he’s available .
I will put myself forward for the post, I know feck all about banking. Should be a shoe in!
I didn’t say inaccuracies I said 1/2 truths. That distorts and its a technique of the politically desperate and dishonest.
We’re selling and Dennis is buying,some people need to wake up and get your money out because this man will fleece you,you have been warned.
have your say