Davy executive quits board of company suing Bank of Ireland

A top Davy executive has quit the board of another business that is suing Bank of Ireland, the parent of the State’s biggest securities firm.

Pat Cooney, who leads the wealth management unit at Davy, resigned as a director of Ailmount Investments Limited on July 25th, according to documents filed with Companies Registration Office.

Ailmount last month launched a commercial court action against Bank of Ireland, which controls Davy, over its alleged failure to make a payment tied to the bank’s takeover of the broker which closed last year.

Ailmount was the ultimate holding company above Davy before the Bank of Ireland deal. Its 30 shareholders include former top figures at the firm, as well as current employees.

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Ailmount’s chairman, Brian McKiernan, led Davy until he resigned in March 2021 amid the fallout from a Central Bank fine and rebuke over a breach of market rules. Then deputy chairman Kyran McLaughlin, who also resigned at that time, is another director of Ailmount.

A spokesman for Davy declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Ailmount Investments. A LinkedIn message to Mr Cooney was not returned.

Bank of Ireland bought Davy for about €427 million, although about a quarter – or almost €107 million – of the consideration has been held over until next June, subject to various conditions being met. Close to 60 per cent of the amount is due to people who are no longer employees of Davy, based on figures contained in Bank of Ireland’s latest annual report.

Davy was put up for sale in 2021 after it was fined a record €4.13 million by the Central Bank for breaching market rules. The broker had sold a Davy client’s bonds to a consortium of 16 people who happened to work for Davy, without notifying the compliance team. The scandal saw the broker dropped as a primary dealer in Irish Government bonds, triggering the closure of its bond desk.