THE BOARD of Irish Nationwide Building Society will report back to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan later this week after a meeting yesterday between the Minister and board members about replacing Michael Fingleton as chief executive.
It is expected the board will announce changes to the management structure by the end of the week. Government sources said last night they expected Mr Fingleton to step down “within days”.
Irish Nationwide board member Danny Kitchen, who declined an offer to replace Mr Fingleton as chief executive of the building society, was among four non-executives who attended the meeting at the Department of Finance.
Mr Kitchen, who is the choice of the Irish Nationwide board to succeed Mr Fingleton, had turned the job down after the Government capped the salary for the position at €360,000 a year.
The non-executive directors did not make any comment to reporters yesterday afternoon. However, a spokesman for the Department of Finance said later that “productive meetings” were held and that the board was due to report back to the Minister later this week.
Irish Nationwide directors Adrian Kearns and Rory O’Ferrall, who were appointed to the board by the Government to promote the public interest as a condition of the guarantee scheme, also attended the meeting. The fourth non-executive director present was acting chairman Terence Cooney.
A spokesman for Irish Nationwide said the members of the board had “informed the Minister that the search for a new chief executive, which had been ongoing for several months, is continuing”. The board is now due to meet to review the outcome of the talks with Mr Lenihan.
Sources indicated to The Irish Times yesterday that the board is hoping for an “orderly transfer” between Mr Fingleton and the incoming chief executive.
Pressure is building on Mr Fingleton to signal in the coming days that he will end his tenure as Irish Nationwide chief executive with effect from the date of the building society’s next agm, which usually takes place at the end of April or beginning of May.
Green Party chairman Senator Dan Boyle said that the party’s consistent view that Mr Fingleton’s position was untenable had been vindicated by yesterday’s developments.
“Mr Fingleton has finally decided to leave his job, having earlier agreed to return his bonus of €1 million. But the issue surrounding his pension remains to be dealt with and still remains a concern that needs to be cleared up,” said Mr Boyle.
Irish Nationwide is preparing to report its annual results and they are expected to show losses of close to €500 million on its €12 billion loan book, which has a heavy exposure to the collapsing property sector.