THE FINANCIAL Regulator will not approve the appointment of any internal candidates to Anglo Irish Bank’s long-term senior management team until the investigations into the State-owned lender have concluded.
The Irish Timeshas learned that the regulator will not allow Anglo Irish chief executive Mike Aynsley to fill key roles on the bank's long-term management team with executives who currently hold senior positions at the bank.
The regulator has prohibited internal appointments to these roles until its own inquiry into directors’ loans and the investigations of the Garda and the Director of the Corporate Enforcement Paul Appleby are complete.
The Garda and Mr Appleby’s office are investigating directors’ loans, the €7.45 billion deposits from Irish Life Permanent which flattered Anglo’s balance sheet at its 2008 financial year- end and the secret purchase of a 10 per cent stake in the bank – held indirectly by businessman Seán Quinn – by 10 of the bank’s customers using loans from Anglo.
The regulator has not stopped Anglo appointing existing executives to the interim management team, which will run the bank until the EU Commission approves the bank’s restructuring plan in the coming months. The plan will be submitted at the end of the month.
Mr Aynsley plans to fill six long-term senior roles with outsiders once they have regulatory approval. External candidates appointed in the short term will form part of the interim team, which will be filled within the next three weeks and will work with internal executives until the restructuring plan is approved.
The interim team will comprise managers overseeing 10 areas – finance, lending, retail funding, risk management, financial markets, human resources, balance sheet management, corporate development, technology and operations, and the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) unit.
A number of these roles have been created by Mr Aynsley to implement the restructuring plan and will not form part of the bank’s long-term executive team.
The bank has already appointed an external candidate, Peter Rossiter, a former Citibank executive, as chief risk officer. He will oversee risk management on the interim team.
Mr Aynsley told staff in an e-mail this week that there would be “a phased approach” to the appointments, with the first phase involving appointments to “critical business and functional areas”. This will be followed by the appointment of a smaller number of roles reporting directly to the chief executive early next year.
A number of roles have been signed off by Anglo’s board and the Minister for Finance but await approval from the regulator.
Anglo has unveiled plans to split the lender into a good bank and bad bank following the transfer of €28 billion in loans to Nama. The bank is seeking to appoint a head of the “Old Anglo” bad bank unit.
