DUBLIN: Bank of Ireland may have to decide as soon as this month on the successor to Richie Boucher, as the lender needs to leave time for what could be a lengthy regulatory approval process for its next chief executive officer. Retail banking head Liam McLoughlin and CFO Andrew Keating are considered the leading choices, according to bookmakers. Boucher announced last month that he plans to step down by the end of 2017, and the European Central Bank can take up to six months to approve the selected candidate, even if the person has been approved for another role in the past. That potential timeline may force the board to settle on a candidate by the company’s first-quarter interim management statement at the end of this month, according to a person familiar with the matter. While the lender has said it will look at internal and external candidates, pay caps that come with the government’s 14 percent stake as well as the bank’s ongoing technology overhaul favor an insider, analysts said.
“The next CEO will be tasked with capitalizing on the recovery and growth in the Irish banking market, as well as implementing the significant IT-related investment program which commenced during 2016,” Diarmaid Sheridan, an analyst at securities firm Davy in Dublin, said in a research note on March 27. Sheridan said he expects an internal choice. While the bank has only appointed one outsider as CEO in the past 30 years, it could consider the likes of Bank of Cyprus Holdings Plc chief John Hourican, or Jim Brown, who is leaving his job as head of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s Williams & Glyn unit, analysts said. The government cap on pay at bailed-out Irish banks limits executive salaries to 500,000 euros ($533,000) per year with no bonus. RBS and Bank of Cyprus declined to comment.
Bank of Ireland’s shares are up 3 percent this year, after plunging 31 percent last year. The lender is seeking to pay its first dividend since the financial crisis. Bank of Ireland has seen how searches can drag on. Permanent TSB Group Holdings Plc didn’t have a permanent chief financial officer between September 2015 and March this year. During that time, the bank lost at least one candidate for the position in part because of the time the ECB deliberations were taking. Here are the most likely candidates from the bank’s executive suite and a couple of dark horses from its board of directors, based on interviews with people in and outside the firm.
