Pat Whelan joined Anglo Irish Bank in 1989 and rose through its ranks to become a board member in 2006 and managing director of the bank’s main business in Ireland in 2007.
The Irish operations of Anglo accounted for €43 billion of €73 billion in loans advanced by the bank at the end of September 2008, according to its annual report for that financial year.
Mr Whelan was a member of the senior executive board, which ran the bank, reporting to the chief executive, David Drumm. He had previously held a number of senior management positions in the bank’s lending operations and was later director of group risk and operations.
Mr Whelan was paid €650,000 by Anglo in the bank’s financial year to September 2008 and €1.2 million the previous year, including a bonus of €640,000. He held 447,000 shares in Anglo at the end of September 2008.
Mr Whelan resigned as a director of the bank in February 2009, a month after Anglo was nationalised by the government.
He remained working with Anglo under the new management team led by Seán FitzPatrick’s successor, Donal O’Connor, and left the bank on December 8th, 2009.
The bank’s annual report for 2009 shows Mr Whelan was paid €277,000 for the 15-month period to December 2009. The report also shows he owed the bank €5.8 million at the end of 2009.
Mr Whelan was named in separate proceedings before the Commercial Court as one of the Anglo executives who dealt with the loans given to the businesses and family members of Seán Quinn.
The 50-year-old former banker, who lives in Malahide, Co Dublin, works occasionally in London. Prior to yesterday Mr Whelan had not been arrested in the investigation into Anglo.
