'It was a silly incident. I am paying a very high price for it'

Michael Soden interview: Bank of Ireland's former chief executive, Mr Michael Soden, says he regrets his "indiscretion", but believes that if you make the rules, you have to live by them. Siobhán Creaton, Finance Correspondent

Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Soden said his departure from the Republic's second-biggest bank at the weekend was self-inflicted.

"It was a silly incident. It was unfortunate and I am paying a very high price for it. I regret it enormously. It was foolish.

"More than anything else I regret the hurt caused to my wife, the staff and the bank's shareholders. It was a case of curiosity killed the cat."

Mr Soden said that he had strayed onto a website that had links to material of an adult nature but had not done anything illegal.

"It was a one-shot event but there were policies and procedures on Internet use that I had signed off on. I am a very strong believer that when you make the rules, there is not one version for the leader and one for the staff."

Bank of Ireland's governor, Mr Laurence Crowley, first raised the issue with Mr Soden last Friday when he summoned the chief executive to return from a business meeting in London to discuss the matter.

He is understood to have viewed the material on this site on his personal computer at Bank of Ireland on April 2nd last. Ironically, an audit of Bank of Ireland staff's compliance with its internet policies was carried out on that date.

The audit identified Mr Soden's personal computer was used to access this site and the information was subsequently passed onto Mr Crowley.

He is believed to have ordered an independent audit of the findings of the original audit.

During that process, all of the information stored on the hard drive of Mr Soden's computer since his arrival at the bank two-and-a-half years ago was examined.

Mr Soden said that when he discussed the audit's findings with Mr Crowley, he knew he could only make one decision, which was to resign.

"I am a very strong believer that when you make the rules, there is not one version for the leader and one for the staff. If this had been played out for a lengthy period of time, it would have done more damage to the bank and to the sector. There was already a cloud across the financial services sector. I put the bank ahead of myself," he explained.

"The alternative was to stand back and to fight it. I hated to have to make that decision but it was in the best interests of the bank.

"It is the equivalent of having been sentenced by a court to be hung for parking your car on the wrong side of the street," Mr Soden said.

"The court of directors were magnificent in their handling of it and in their sensitivity to me as an individual."

In his resignation statement, Mr Soden said that he had made it a central part of his tenure as group chief executive to set the highest standards of integrity and behaviour and to do so in an environment of accountability, transparency and openness.

In an interview with this newspaper last month, Mr Soden spoke about his leadership standards initiative, which was detailed in a credit-card-sized reference card he carried in his wallet.

It tells staff the bank wants them to communicate "honestly and wisely, to match their actions with words, to clearly state what they truly believe and stand for, to treat people fairly and equitably, and to respect and uphold people's dignity".

He said he wanted this to be his legacy to the organisation.

He has been a controversial chief executive who stunned investors when he first arrived in Baggot Street by suggesting that the bank should merge with AIB.

He later led a botched attempt to buy Abbey National and since then has undertaken joint ventures with companies such as the UK Post office instead of chasing big deals.

Staff working at the bank's information technology division took strike action last year after Mr Soden sanctioned the outsourcing of these activities to Hewlett-Packard.

This involved the transfer of 500 employees and only went ahead after the bank offered them an option to be redeployed within the bank after five years.