AIB installs second temporary risk officer

ALLIED IRISH Banks has installed a second temporary appointee to the role of chief risk officer at the bank following the departure of an interim candidate at the end of her six-month consultancy contract.

The bank has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) director Stephen Bell to the job, replacing Mary Phibbs, an associate at the restructuring firm Alvarez and Marsal after her contract ended.

Mr Bell has been part of the PwC team at AIB that has helped executive chairman David Hodgkinson run the bank since he took over from managing director Colm Doherty and executive chairman Dan O’Connor last year.

Mr Hodgkinson sits on the advisory board of PwC, which has been providing advice to the Government and the National Treasury Management Agency on the banks since the financial crash of 2008.

Mr Bell has experience in operational and business risk and has worked on corporate restructuring and insolvency projects.

Ms Phibbs, who had worked for National Australia Bank and UK lender Standard Chartered, has decided not to renew her contract at AIB and returned to work in the UK for personal reasons.

The role of chief risk officer, one of the most crucial at AIB, has been filled on an interim basis since May 2009, when Nick Treble became head of AIB’s Britain and Northern Ireland division.

The Central Bank blocked the bank’s preferred candidate for the job last year as the individual had worked at the bank some years previously.

The bank had hired international recruitment firm Egon Zehnder to fill the role. AIB is continuing with its search for a permanent chief risk officer.

The Government’s €500,000 pay cap on senior bankers has been cited as a difficulty for the bank in its efforts to fill the role.

The bank is awaiting regulatory approval for a number of key management roles which Mr Hodgkinson plans to fill with both internal and external candidates.

Senior executive appointments at AIB are expected to be made ahead of the role of chief executive being filled, a process that is still in its early stages. Head-hunting firm Korn Ferry was appointed to find the bank’s new chief executive.

Financial consultants Promontory wrote a report, commissioned by the Central Bank, earlier this year, concluding that the most pressing needs facing AIB were the appointments of chief executive and chief risk officer.

The fragmented nature of loans approvals at AIB has been blamed for its heavy concentration in property lending, which has pushed the bank’s capital bill to €20.5 billion and effective nationalisation.