FBD consultancy fee to former chief executive revealed

Loss-making insurer FBD had quite the stormy 2015. Interim results in August were the worst in 40 years, with the group posting a loss of €96.4 million. Weeks beforehand, the insurer announced that its then chief executive, Andrew Langford, was resigning "with immediate effect". Stepping down, Langford said the time was right for him to explore new challenges.

The company’s focus was on a return to profitability. It decided to axe the dividend, seek €7 million in cost savings, including voluntary redundancies, and bin Nononsense.ie, FBD’s no-frills brand set up in 2008 to target a young, urban customer base.

FBD may have made cutbacks, but clearly it kept enough in its budget to pay Langford a sizeable monthly consultancy fee. FBD’s annual report this week noted that Langford has agreed to make his experience and services available to the company from February until December 2016 for a fee of €16,300 a month. This may have been a torrid year at the troubled insurer, but it can obviously still pay huge amounts in consultancy fees.

The company's shares have taken a battering. At the start of 2014, they were trading at about €17; yesterday they opened at €6.42. With shares suffering so much, Cantillon wonders what the shareholders think of Langford's well-rewarded role.

Meanwhile, Malin's chief investment officer, Adrian Howd, received a relocation payment of €393,000 last year, according to Malin's annual report. This was higher than his salary of €385,000.