National Irish Bank is the State's fourth-largest bank and is owned by National Australia Bank. The chief executive is Mr Grahame Savage. The bank issued a five-sentence statement on Friday evening and has not commented on the current controversy since then.

Mr Savage was appointed in February of last year, when he replaced Mr John Wright. Mr Wright was chief executive of the bank from July 1996. He had taken over from Mr Barry Seymour, who was chief executive of the bank from 1994, when he took over from Mr Jim Lacey.

Mr Lacey was removed as chief executive of the bank, a position he had held since 1988, following disagreements with its Australian parent company over its plans for NIB.

Mr Lacey, his wife Joan, their four children and the family babysitter were kidnapped in November 1993 by a gang who got £243,000 from the bank.

Even prior to this event, Mr Lacey was probably the bestknown banker in the State as a result of his personal role in a public relations campaign which promoted his bank as offering the best value. Aggressive marketing led to the bank reporting a 14 per cent increase in pre-tax profits in the year ending September 1993.

Mr Lacey was also the subject of extensive publicity in April 1994 when it was reported he had been paid £750,000 settlement following the termination by the bank of his role as chief executive.

Mr Lacey is chairman of the Irish Aviation Authority and a member of the Dublin Docklands Authority.