ACCBank chairwoman, Ms Gary Joyce, has resigned from her position. She informed the Minister for Finance of her decision yesterday and her resignation will take effect from the bank's annual general meeting on April 28th. Mr McCreevy has announced that Mr Padraic O'Connor, the former managing director of NCB Stockbrokers who was recently appointed to the non-statutory board which will oversee its merger with TSB, will replace Ms Joyce. The Minister said he accepted her resignation with genuine regret and commended her on the role she played in bringing forward proposals for the merger and flotation of ACC and TSB.

Ms Joyce was appointed chairwoman of ACC three years ago by the Rainbow Coalition government. She was omitted from the non-statutory board which was announced last week. In a statement yesterday, Ms Joyce said she now wished to concentrate on other business ventures. "Three years ago I was charged with the task of preparing ACC for a change of status. The bank is now on course to merge and float on the stock exchange and I am confident that NewBank will be a financially-strong, competitive, nationwide bank," she said. The outgoing chairwoman paid tribute to the efforts of ACC's management and staff in the preparations for privatisation and wished the new board well. Mr O'Connor and TSB chief executive, Mr Harry Lorton, are new appointments to the ACC board. This board will work with the non-statutory board in the period leading up to the flotation which is scheduled for May 2000. The non-statutory board will then become the board of directors of NewBank.