AIB pays US chief £1.14m incentive bonus

The former chief executive of Allied Irish Banks' First Maryland (FMB) business in the US received a payment of £1.14 million (€1.45 million) under FMB's long-term incentive plan. This was in addition to the salary and other payments Mr Jerry Casey received in the 10 months to his retirement at the end of October 1998.

AIB breaks down separately the remuneration of its US-based director, which was Mr Casey from January to October, and Mr Frank Bramble for the following two months. The total paid to the US-based directors was £1.23 million, made up of basic salary of £421,000, long-term incentive payments of £341,000, pension contributions of £425,000, benefits of £22,000 and fees of £21,000.

Although Mr Casey and Mr Bramble report to AIB chief executive Mr Tom Mulcahy, the USbased director is the highest paid at AIB, as his salary package has to be in line with US, rather than Irish, banking salaries

The four Irish-based directors - Mr Mulcahy; managing director-capital markets, Mr Michael Buckley; managing director-AIB Bank, Mr Kevin Kelly; and finance director, Mr Gary Kennedy - received a total of £1.82 million in remuneration - an average of £455,000 each.

Mr Mulcahy, as chief executive, would, however, have received well in excess of this average payment. The total compares to £1.59 million in 1997, when there was an average of 3.6 Irish-based directors.

The £1.82 million paid to the four Irish-based directors was made up of £951,000 in salaries, £481,000 in performance-related bonuses, £152,000 in pension contributions, £122,000 in benefits, £85,000 in fees and £31,000 in profit-sharing payments.

The non-executive directors - nine who served for a full-year and one who served for six months - received combined fees of £378,000 and pension contributions of £95,000. The annual report shows that 11 directors had loans outstanding from the bank totalling £10.8 million, down from £12.1 million in 1997.

The annual report also shows that the chief executive of FMB, Mr Bramble, has a change of control agreement with AIB under which he would receive a severance payment of three times his salary, bonus and long-term incentive payments, in the event "of his discharge or constructive discharge within two years following a change of control".