The New Year will bring changes at the helms of three top companies in the financial services sector. At Irish Life, Mr David Went will take over as managing director at the beginning of January from Mr David Kingston who retires at the end of this year.

At Bank of Ireland, Mr Maurice Keane will become group chief executive replacing Mr Pat Molloy who will retire at the end of January. And at Ulster Bank, Mr Martin Wilson will take over in May from the retiring Mr Ronnie Kells.

At the two banks, the arrival of new men at the top is unlikely to bring major policy or directional changes. It will be more a hand-over than a change. While both new chief executives will undoubtedly bring their own expertise and experience to the jobs, the two institutions have well established growth and expansion strategies in place. And both new chief executives have been involved in forming group policy for several years.

But there is the prospect of considerable change at Irish Life. The signal is the board decision to bring in a banker to run the life assurance group. Mr Went is likely to try to move quickly to transform Irish Life into a bank assurance operation.