Fiona Muldoon has resigned her position as director of credit institutions and insurance supervision at the Central Bank of Ireland without having lined up alternative employment.
Ms Muldoon’s decision to leave the regulator was announced yesterday. She will continue with her supervision duties and remain until May 1st, having joined the bank in August 2011 on a five-year contract.
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Ms Muldoon said she has not lined up another job. "I'm leaving without a parachute." She said it was a "good inflection point" to move on. "It just felt like the right time. It could be right or it could be wrong."
In a statement released by the bank, Ms Muldoon added: “I hope I have made a meaningful contribution towards resolving some of those challenges and to the bank during my time here.”
Leadership strengths
Commenting on Ms Muldoon's departure, Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan said she brought "great leadership strengths and practical knowledge of the financial services industry" to her role.
“She has been instrumental in many of the initiatives undertaken by the bank to address the role of the regulator, the mortgage and SME arrears issues and the stabilisation of the banking sector,” he added.
Ms Muldoon is the fourth senior executive at the Central Bank to announce their resignations this year.
Matthew Elderfield, former deputy governor and head of regulation; Peter Oakes, former director of enforcement, and Lars Frisell, director of economics and chief economist, also announced their departures from Dame Street.
Ms Muldoon is known to have applied to succeed Mr Elderfield but that competition was won by Frenchman Cyril Roux.
Ms Muldoon hit the headlines in October 2012 when she told the national conference of the Irish Banking Federation that lenders were simply paying “lip service” to the resolution of their mortgage arrears problems. “A culture of leadership is missing in Irish banking: many of you may dislike me for saying this but, arguably, if it was also missing in the creation of the credit bubble then it is still missing,” she added.
She also oversaw the establishment of a pilot scheme to help with those who are in difficulties with secured and unsecured debt with multiple financial institutions. This met with significant resistance from the Irish League of Credit Unions.
