Santander appointment to keep Byrne in Poland

AIB MAY quit Poland with the sale of BZ WBK to Santander but Irishman Gerry Byrne remains in situ after the Spaniards appointed him as its chief executive there.

"It was a role that I couldn't refuse," Byrne told me this week. He spent 37 years with Allied Irish Banks, the past 10 years in Poland as president of its operation there.

Byrne said the uncertainty about BZ WBK's future with AIB left staff there "uneasy" about their careers but the sale has "refreshed ambitions".

BZ WBK is Poland's third biggest bank with 9,800 staff.

Its pretax profit this year is expected to be about €400 million - growth of more than 15 per cent.

"It will be in that ball park," Byrne said.

"We're capable of doing 15 to 20 per cent growth each year over the next few years if the Polish economy continues to perform."

Polish gross domestic product is forecast to grow by 4 per cent this year.

His view on AIB's travails? "It's a tragedy really. It was a great bank. There's no winners in this."