Minister Donohoe nominates two Non-Executive Directors to the Board of AIB

The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, has today (Monday) announced the nomination of Ms. Ann O’Brien and Mr. Raj Singh to the board of AIB Group plc.

Commenting on the appointments, Minister Donohoe said:

"The Programme for Partnership Government includes a commitment to cease the appointment of new Public Interest Directors in the banks in which the State has a shareholding and reform the process by which future Ministerial nominees are appointed to the board of each bank. Appointments are now being made on foot of the State’s rights as shareholder in each of the banks and not using the powers contained in the Credit Institutions Financial Support (CIFS) Act as was the case with Public Interest Directors".

“Following a comprehensive and transparent open selection process run by the Public Appointments Service (PAS) and the Department of Finance which included an assessment panel made up of a majority of independent members with significant industry expertise, I am delighted to announce today the appointment of Ann and Raj to the Board of AIB. These are the first appointees under this new process I am confident that these two highly skilled and hugely experienced appointees will make an immediate and substantive contribution to the board of the bank.”

The Department of Finance and the Public Appointment Service established a comprehensive and transparent process in 2018 to identify appropriately skilled candidates for nomination by the Minister to the three banks in which the State holds a shareholding, namely AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB. In addition and as a final step in the process the preferred candidates are required to obtain regulatory approval by successfully completing the ECBs Fitness and Probity assessment.

Today’s announcement completes the Ministerial appointment process in relation to AIB and further announcements in relation to the nomination of Non-executive directors in the Permanent TSB and Bank of Ireland will be made in the months ahead following the completion of these processes.

Notes to Editors:

The Programme for Partnership Government included a commitment to cease the appointment of new Public Interest Directors (PIDS) in the banks and reform the process by which State nominees are appointed to the board of the banks into the future.

No new Ministerial nominees* have been put forward to these banks since 2010 and no new Public Interest Directors have been appointed since the original appointments at the time of the bank guarantee. There are currently no nominees on the boards of these banks as the last remaining directors in AIB and BOI both retired at the end of 2017 – see table below

Appointments are now being made on foot of the Minister’s rights as shareholder in each of the banks and not using the powers contained in the Credit Institutions Financial Support (CIFS) Act as was the case with Public Interest Directors. Pursuant to these rights the Minister can appoint up to two directors to the boards of both AIB and PTSB and one director to the board of Bank of Ireland.

The process to select these appointees began in 2018. The roles were publicly advertised and candidates were assessed and nominated through a transparent open competition run by the Public Appointments Service (PAS) and the Department of Finance. An assessment panel made up of a majority of independent members with significant industry expertise reviewed, assessed and interviewed applicants and then compiled a list of suitable applicants following which the Minister for Finance selected his preferred candidates. Following this the two preferred candidates were then required to successfully complete the ECBs Fitness and Probity assessment.

It is important to note that any new appointment procedure for bank directors needs to have due regard to the distinct differences which exist relative to appointments to State boards. These include the requirements of the Central Bank/SSM Fitness and Probity Regime and the requirement to have a broad set of expertise relevant to large regulated entities in an ever more complex regulatory environment.

Further announcements in relation to the nomination of Non-executive directors in the PTSB and Bank of Ireland will be made in the months ahead following the completion of these processes

The date of appointment and date of resignation/cessation of office for each of the Public Interest Directors appointed at AIB, BOI and PTSB are as follows:

Bank	Appointed	Resignation/cessation
Allied Irish Banks
Michael Somers *	Jan 2010	Dec 2017
Dick Spring	Jan 09	Dec 2014
Declan Collier	Jan 09	Jun 2012
Bank of Ireland
Tom Considine	Jan 09	Dec 2017
Joe Walsh**	Jan 09	Nov 2014
Permanent TSB
Margaret Hayes	Dec 08	May 2013
Ray McSharry	Dec 08	May 2013

* Dr Michael Somers was a Government Nominee (not a Public Interest Director) appointed to the AIB board on 14 January 2010 under the terms of the NPRFC s Preference Share investment of €3.5bn in AIB of May 2009. He was subsequently appointed on two more occasions.

**Joe Walsh ceased to be a director following his death in November 2014

Biographies:

Ann O’Brien

Ann has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry. A past student of UCD and later Trinity College Dublin, for the past 20 years Ann has led complex management consulting engagements at many of the world's largest global banking and securities organisations. Her most recent role was as a Principal with Deloitte in New York where she was based for 10 years. Originally from Ireland, Ann has also lived and worked in the UK, Luxembourg and France.

Raj Singh

Raj has thirty-four years’ business, risk and governance experience gained in large complex financial services organisations, which has included 17 years in international, commercial, private and consumer banking, followed by 17 years in financial conglomerate, reinsurance and insurance and asset management firms. Mr Singh previously served as a non-executive director of a national credit bureau and two publicly traded financial institutions in addition to serving on the Boards of many of the major banking, insurance, reinsurance and asset management subsidiaries of the firms he has worked for. These firms include Standard Life Aberdeen plc, Accedere AG, Swiss Reinsurance Company LTD, Allianz SE, and Citigroup. He is currently the Chief Risk Officer and Executive Committee member of EFG International, a Swiss private banking group. Raj is a US citizen, a UK and Swiss resident.

ENDS

Minister Donohoe nominates two Non-Executive Directors to the Board of AIB

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