AIB appoint outsider to role of chief risk officer

AIB YESTERDAY announced the appointment of an outside consultant, Mary Phibbs, as the bank’s group chief risk officer (CRO) for a six-month period.

She will fill a role that has been vacant since May 2009 when Nick Treble was appointed head of AIB’s division in Britain and Northern Ireland.

In the interim, AIB chief executive Colm Doherty, who will leave the bank in the coming weeks, has filled what is now considered a pivotal role at the institution given the pain it has experienced with its loan book.

The appointment of Ms Phibbs comes almost a year after AIB said it would appoint an outsider as CRO.

That came at the same time as a new management team, led by Mr Doherty, was installed at AIB.

But no appointment was made. Reports suggested that AIB stressed to the Financial Regulator 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.

The regulator had been locked in protracted and difficult discussions with the bank on the appointment of a chief risk officer earlier this year and about the criteria that AIB had been applying in selecting a candidate.

A spokeswoman for AIB said Ms Phibbs’s appointment was driven by the bank rather than the Government or the regulator. However, the regulator is believed to have signed off on it.

The interim appointment yesterday was being viewed in terms of the major changes in control that are set to take place at AIB. The bank is set to fall into majority State ownership as part of a large capital-raising exercise, while Mr Doherty is stepping down from his role.

AIB’s executive chairman Dan O’Connor left the bank last week with the appointment of two new non-executive directors, Jim O’Hara, the former general manager of Intel Ireland, and former JP Morgan executive Catherine Woods. The bank is expected to announce the appointment of a new non-executive chairman over the coming weeks.

Ms Phibbs has been “retained” from professional services firm Alvarez and Marsal, which specialises in the financial sector.

Ms Phibbs has worked in Australia and the UK and has more than 30 years’ experience in banking.