THE NATIONAL Asset Management Agency should consider having fewer accountants and more individuals with property expertise on its board, a former banker has recommended in a review of the State loans agency.

It has also been recommended that Nama should introduce a succession plan in case the chief executive of the State agency leaves.

Mike Geoghegan, the former chief executive of international bank HSBC hired by Nama to carry out the review, gave a positive appraisal of its work since it was set up in December 2009.

Mr Geoghegan made the recommendations as Nama moves from acquiring €74 billion in loans for about €31 billion and approving the business plans of debtors to a phase focusing on recovering loans and disposing of assets.

Nama has approved the plans of 143 of the top 180 debtors who will be managed directly by the agency.

It intends to review all 180 plans by the end of the year.

Changes to reporting lines have also been recommended by Mr Geoghegan who suggested Nama should consider appointing a senior executive such as a chief financial officer who could serve as successor to chief executive Brendan McDonagh should he ever consider leaving the agency.

Mr Geoghegan presented his recommendations at a special meeting of the board on Monday.

Peter Stewart, a partner at chartered accountants O’Donovan Stewart and a non-executive board member of Nama since its establishment, resigned yesterday.

“I believe the Geoghegan review should be a watershed in the life of Nama and I hope that its recommendations will be fully implemented,” he said.

He declined to disclose details of the review but said in a statement issued by his own public relations representative that it “should result in significant changes to the structures of the agency”.

“There are no big secrets in it; it is not going to change the world,” Mr Stewart told The Irish Times.

He decided to resign after “22 months of hard labour”, he said.

He attended 94 meetings last year – 24 board meetings, 14 meetings of the audit committee, 52 credit committee meetings and four meetings of Nama’s Northern Ireland advisory committee of which he was the chairman.

“It is a good time to go and to move on . . . It is a shift in phase in the life of the agency; it is moving on from being a start-up,” he said.

Speaking to The Irish Timeslast week, Mr Geoghegan said that Nama had to offer high pay to attract the most talented people.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, who has met Mr Geoghegan to discuss Nama, must choose Mr Stewart’s replacement.

Appointed for a three-year term by the then minister for finance Brian Lenihan, Mr Stewart was paid €57,641 a year by Nama.

He was one of three accountants on the eight-person board.

Nama chairman Frank Daly said that Mr Stewart was a board member during “an exceptionally busy and challenging period”.

Mr Noonan said Mr Stewart and other board members had made “a very important contribution to the work of the agency”.