Chairman's flat cost AIB €4,500 a month

STATE-OWNED bank AIB yesterday disclosed that it paid €4,500 a month for a Dublin apartment used by David Hodgkinson during his term as executive chairman of the bank.

Mr Hodgkinson stayed in the apartment, the location of which the bank declined to reveal, throughout 2011 while he was executive chairman. Since assuming a non-executive role following the appointment of David Duffy as chief executive of the bank last December, Mr Hodgkinson stopped using the apartment.

The revelation was made at yesterday’s agm, at which Mr Hodgkinson also indicated AIB was “aggressively targeting measures aimed at reducing the group’s overall cost base”.

These measures include the closure of the bank’s defined benefit scheme, reductions in salaries and the removal of legacy benefits.

The Irish Bank Officials’ Association (IBOA) yesterday said staff were “virtually unanimous” in rejecting the cuts, and that “a substantial majority” would take industrial action if the bank tried to impose changes without proper negotiation and agreement with the union.

AIB is also set to welcome a new chief operating officer, Anne Boden, formerly of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). She starts on July 2nd and will replace Marcel McCann, operations and technology director, who is set to retire.

Ms Boden will join the executive committee and will also take responsibility for the transformation agenda.

Until March 2011, Ms Boden was head of Europe, Middle East and Asia, and global transaction services at RBS. Prior to that, she worked for a number of institutions including ABN Amro, Aon, UBS and Lloyds Bank.