Another senior executive will join the former Anglo Irish Bank on Monday on an annual pay package of more than €500,000 in a deal that has been signed off by the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.
He will be the seventh executive at the bank on a total package of more than €500,000 a year. Kevin Blake joins State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation as chief risk officer and will sit on the bank’s executive committee.
The bank confirmed Mr Blake would be paid in line with the other senior executives at the bank, who are paid total remuneration packages of more than €500,000.
The Irish Times revealed earlier this week the names and pay of the bank’s five highest-paid executives – each on total remuneration of more than €500,000 – who report to chief executive Mike Aynsley at IBRC.
The Minister disclosed to Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath in a reply to a Dáil question that six executives were on total remuneration, including salary, benefits, allowances and pension contributions, of more than €500,000 a year.
Responding, Tánaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said it was not acceptable for bankers at the former Anglo or in other lenders bailed out by the State to be paid more than €500,000 a year.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance last night confirmed that Mr Blake’s appointment and pay package as chief risk officer was approved by the department and that his pay was in line with guidelines.
The spokesman referred to guidelines met by AIB chief executive David Duffy when he was appointed to the State-owned bank in 2011.
The guidelines cap remuneration, including allowances and benefits, at €500,000, but exclude a contribution to a banker’s pension. Details of the €500,000-plus IBRC pay packages disclosed by the Minister included contributions to the pensions of the five bankers.
Mr Duffy has since taken a 15 per cent pay cut on his annual salary. Mr Blake, a former executive at the Co-Operative Bank in the UK, is replacing Peter Rossiter who moved to AIB to take up the same role, chief risk officer, in April.
IBRC has defended its high pay levels, saying it has to pay the market rate for skilled staff if the bank is to be wound down at the lowest cost to the Irish taxpayer. The bank is winding down the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, which are costing the Irish public almost €35 billion.
IBRC refused a request from Mr Noonan in April to reduce salaries, saying that it had difficulty retaining and attracting staff, and that the packages paid to senior management were lower than those historically paid by the former Anglo.
Mr Blake’s remuneration was signed off by the Minister prior to his appointment by IBRC in July. Consultants Mercer have since been hired by the department to review pay across the State-guaranteed banks and this is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The department said the Minister will discuss pay levels at IBRC, which are “a matter of ongoing concern”, with its chairman Alan Dukes, a former Fine Gael leader. The discussions will be informed by the findings of the review of bankers’ pay, the department said.
IBRC disclosed earlier this week that its chief financial officer Jim Bradley, head of asset recoveries Tom Hunersen, head of Irish recoveries Mark Layther and head of specialised asset management Richard Woodhouse are each paid a salary of about €400,000 a year.
