THE 10-STRONG team at the National Treasury Management Agency overseeing the Government’s banking policy is moving to the Department of Finance in an arrangement where members will retain their pay and bonuses.

The team, led by former Irish Life Permanent and Ulster Bank executive Michael Torpey, will move to the department over the coming weeks, reporting to John Moran, the department’s new head of banking policy.

Mr Moran is overseeing the restructuring of the banks under the Government’s “two-pillar” banking strategy, comprising Bank of Ireland and a combination of AIB and EBS Building Society.

The NTMA team will remain employees of the Government debt agency, where pay rates are higher than at the department as the agency falls outside Civil Service pay grades.

The move to the department is on the basis of a secondment, which allows them to remain as employees of the State agency.

The restructuring is part of the Government’s efforts to bring the management of the restructuring of the banking sector under one unit at the department, reporting to the Minister for Finance.

Details of the move are being finalised. A Department of Finance spokesman had no comment. A spokesman for the NTMA declined to comment or give details of the pay arrangements of the 10 members of the unit.

It is understood that the team would have resisted any attempt to have their remuneration brought in line with Civil Service pay rates as part of the move and would likely have left the employment of the agency for private sector jobs if pay reductions were imposed.

NTMA staff receive an annual pension and performance bonus under contractual arrangement.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said last month that a unit within the department would have a “hands-on” approach in restructuring the banks.

“This unit will be strengthened as necessary, and will draw on the resources of the NTMA to carry out its work,” he said.

His predecessor, Brian Lenihan, moved responsibility for the Government’s banking function to the NTMA in March 2010.

The agency’s main responsibility was leading discussions with the banks on their capital requirements and negotiating the terms and conditions on which the Government recapitalised the banks.