TONY Taylor (48) was for many years one of the more prominent public faces of the investment industry. But those who worked closely with him say that he ran the Taylor, Group very much on his owns and did not divulge financial details on how the company operated to those he worked with.

Recent accounts have not been filed with the company's office.

However, the questions do not surround the main business of Taylor Asset Managers.

It has now emerged that for some years Mr Taylor dealt personally with private clients, unknown to other staff at the company. These would mainly have been wealthy individuals - many of them owners of their own businesses - with substantial funds to invest.

The other staff in Taylor Asset Managers are not believed to have had any knowledge of this.

Mr Taylor is said to have run the firm with an iron fist", insisting that he would exclusively deal with its auditors.

He had sole access to the firm's bank accounts.

Sources in the industry say staff found him to be "domineering" and a demanding boss.

Earlier this year, three senior executives left the company to set up a new in vestment firm. This left the company with around a dozen staff and funds under management believed to be over £50 million.

Educated at Rockwell College, Co Tipperary, Mr Taylor started his career as a trainee actuary with NM Life, which was later taken over by Standard Life.

In 1972, he left NM to work with investment brokers, Mr David Cullen and Mr James Bowen. The company had, at that time, just taken over the Fitzwilton group's account, which Mr Taylor looked after.

He quickly gained a high profile, presenting himself as an "investment guru" and was successful in winning many wealthy clients.

His relationship with the firm became strained over the years, and he eventually left to set up his own business in the mid 1980s.

He was always disliked by the big institutions, which saw him as trying to cut in on their funds management patch.

The company frequently took out full page advertisements in the Sunday papers to show how its clients were getting better returns on their investments than those achieved by the biggest fund managers in the Republic.

However, one of these advertisements saying "now is the time to get into equities" proved acutely embarrassing for Mr Taylor. Shortly afterwards, the world stock markets crashed. It was Black Monday 1987.

Mr Taylor has been a very prominent member of the insurance industry over the past 10 years and was founding president of the brokers industry body, the Irish Brokers Association.

He gained further stature as a member of the Government appointed body to advise on the introduction of the EU investment intermediaries directive in Ireland. This led to the new investment intermediaries legislation under which the industry is now regulated by, the Department of Enterprise and Employment and the Central Bank.

Mr Taylor and his second wife, Shirley, live in a substantial property at Anglesea Road in Dublin and own a time share property in the US state of Virginia. There was no reply yesterday when an Irish Times reporter called to the Anglesea Road property.

Mr Taylor drove a top of the range silver Mercedes, which has now been sold and last year bought his wife a BMW convertible model. His wife worked as a receptionist at TAM. A keen golfer, he was a member of The Grange club in Rathfarnham, south county Dublin.