Banking-crisis survivor Bowler outlasted rivals by a year

The ILP chairman defended her decision to stay on, saying her ‘moral compass’ told her she should, and that shareholders agreed

THE GREAT survivor of the Irish banking crisis is to retire.

Gillian Bowler, best known for her trademark sunglasses-on-head look, will retire as chairman of Irish Life Permanent (ILP) following the appointment of a successor early in the new year.

She is the only remaining bank chairman to survive the crisis, outlasting rivals by more than a year.

She stayed on despite offering her resignation over the controversial €7 billion deposits with Anglo Irish Bank which forced the resignations of three senior executives.

She apologised but did not use the excuse that ILP had been following “the green jersey agenda” where Irish banks were officially encouraged to support each other.

Escaping resignation was a move of which Houdini would be proud.

But then ILP occupies a different space to the other banks. It is the only one not to be propped up by a Government bailout, leaning on its profitable pensions and investments firm, Irish Life.

However, the group is heavily dependent on the bank guarantee to fund itself, given how its mortgage lending far outstripped its intake of deposits during the frenzied decade-long property boom.

Bowler was there throughout; she became chairman in 2004.

But she won the hearts of the shareholders, particularly the pensioners who appreciated her straight-talking in a strong performance at the May 2009 annual meeting where she was re-elected.

Most importantly, she avoided the dismissive tone of some of her peers. Yesterday, she defended her decision to stay, saying she wanted to work through the crisis.

“I felt it was my duty. My moral compass told me I had a need to stay and when I said that to the shareholders, they agreed with me. It would have been easier to leave,” she said.The share price has more than halved since shareholders backed her decision.

“If I had left, would it have improved? I don’t know – the events of the last year would have happened to whoever was here.”

She described as “pure fiction” the allegation, made by former ILP chief executive Denis Casey to gardaí investigating Anglo, that Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan had asked her to stay on to help bolster his position in the face of political pressure in 2009.

ILP faces huge uncertainty. Delays in the sale of EBS, which it wants to buy, have postponed plans to offload Permanent TSB after tapping shareholders for cash. There is unlikely to be any progress on this until mid-2011.

Bowler believes the situation has improved for ILP. “It has recovered some of its reputation that was badly damaged. We have kept our independence and avoided State aid,” she said.

The life business is extremely valuable, she added, but undervalued by the market.

She questioned whether the €200,000 pay attached to her job and the negativity around Ireland might deter an overseas successor.

Bowler said she would get no “golden parachute” payment when she leaves and wasn’t sure yet if she would seek fees for the period until her successor arrives.

“The money is not the goal – the company is the goal,” she said – just the kind of talk that ensured she held on to her job for so long.

INS AND OUTS THE GREAT BANKING EXODUS

AIB

Chairman Dermot Gleeson – gone

Executive chairman Dan O’Connor – gone

Chief executive Eugene Sheehy – gone

Managing director Colm Doherty – gone

Executive chairman David Hodgkinson – new, outsider

Bank of Ireland

Chairman (governor) Richard Burrows – gone

Replaced by Pat Molloy – new appointee, former CEO

Chief executive Brian Goggin – gone

Replaced by Richie Boucher, an insider

Anglo Irish

Chairman Sean FitzPatrick – gone

Replaced by non-executive director Donal O’Connor and later State-appointed Alan Dukes

Chief executive David Drumm – gone

Replaced by outsider Mike Aynsley

ILP

Chairman Gillian Bower – going, replacement to be announced

Chief executive Denis Casey – gone

Replaced by insider Kevin Murphy

EBS

Chairman Mark Moran – gone, replacement to be announced

Chief executive Fergus Murphy – still in place, appointed Jan ’09

Irish Nationwide

Chairman Michael Walsh – gone

Replaced by Danny Kitchen, a non-executive director since 2008

Chief-executive Michael Fingleton – gone

Replaced by outsider Gerry McGinn