Bank of Ireland paid €50m to 166 key employees last year

Bank of Ireland paid €50.5 million to its top 166 executives and managers, according to a recent company filing.

This compared with a figure of €40.7 million in 2014 when 156 so-called code role holders were in situ.

The difference between the two years is also explained by a combination of foreign exchange movements (Bank of Ireland has a large operation in the UK) and the fact that a number of the code role holders were not in place for the whole of 2014.

These figures are included in Bank of Ireland’s Pillar III disclosure document, published on its website recently.

The document also states that Bank of Ireland made a severance payment of €130,000 to one of the code role holders, who is not named.

Under European Banking Authority guidelines, code role holders are identified as "material risk takers"– people who take decisions that could possibly cost the bank money.

Separately, Bank of Ireland's annual report shows that chief financial officer Andrew Keating received an increase in his remuneration last year of 7 per cent to €488,000. This was the result of his salary being increased by €32,000 to €422,000.

Boucher ’s salary

As previously reported, the remuneration of chief executive

Richie Boucher

increased to €961,000 from €843,000 in 2014 after his salary and pension waivers ceased to apply.

The bank’s UK annual report show it paid £3.5 million to its key management personnel in 2015, up from £3.2 million in the previous year.

Some £1.5 million of this amount was paid to directors, an increase of about £100,000 on 2014.

The highest amount paid to any director was £307,087 in salary and benefits. This was down from £338,958 in 2014.

The identity of the highest-paid director was not revealed. Bank of Ireland's UK business is led by Des Crowley.