AIB AND the Financial Regulator have been locked in lengthy discussions on the appointment of the bank’s new chief risk officer – a post that remains vacant almost eight months after the bank said that it would hire an outsider for the role.
The bank is thought to have stressed the difficulties in securing a candidate given the restrictions imposed by the Government’s oversight committee on bankers’ pay which caps senior executive remuneration at €500,000.
It is understood that the regulator has raised concerns about the significance of the pivotal role within the bank, which is being forced to raise €7.4 billion in additional capital by the regulator.
Discussions over the appointment have been described as “frustrating” by a source familiar with the recruitment process.
Last November AIB indicated its intention to appoint an external candidate when it promoted Colm Doherty from head of the bank’s capital markets division to the position of group managing director.
Mr Doherty told staff in an internal email last March that the position of chief risk officer was the only remaining role to be filled on his new management team and that he hoped to present a candidate to the regulator shortly.
The regulator had no comment.
An AIB spokesman said the search was “ongoing” and that the bank was hoping to make an appointment “in the not-too-distant future”. The role has been filled on an interim basis by Mr Doherty in recent months, he said.
The regulator has taken a more hands-on role in key appointments at the banks, interviewing candidates before granting its approval.
The change in policy is part of planned reform of fitness and probity rules to improve the vetting of the competency of prospective candidates to senior banking roles.
Following the appointment of Mr Doherty, an internal candidate, as managing director, and Dan O’Connor from non-executive chairman to executive chairman last year, AIB committed to fill the roles of chief risk officer and finance director with outsiders.
Ex-ESB finance director Bernard Byrne was named AIB’s chief financial officer last January. He was one of the first candidates to be interviewed by the regulator under its new vetting process.
