ANOTHER SENIOR executive at Bank of Scotland (Ireland) has left the bank as the UK-owned lender announced a major reshuffle of its executive management team.

The bank said in a statement that Paul Cunningham would be stepping down as head of banking after more than 13 years with the company “to pursue other business and personal interests”.

He is the fourth executive to depart in the last five months. The bank announced four new appointments to its executive committee. Martin Akers, a former executive with the company’s parent bank, Lloyds Banking Group, has been appointed head of risk, taking over from Paul McEvoy who remains on the committee and becomes the bank’s new head of commercial banking.

Bernard Kingston takes over as head of retail and intermediary, succeeding Antoinette Dunne, a long-standing executive who departed the bank suddenly last month after more than 20 years with the company. Ms Dunne was a key figure behind the launch and roll-out of the Halifax retail business. Mark Mohan has been appointed head of marketing and communications, strategy and products as the fourth new member of the bank’s executive committee.

Mr Cunningham told The Irish Times that he had decided “for his own reasons to move on” and that he had made the decision “quite some time ago”. He said that he had been with the bank and its precursor, the State-owned ICC Bank, for almost 20 years. “It was a natural time to move on,” he said.

The bank’s chief executive Joe Higgins, who succeeded Mark Duffy following his departure in April, said that the appointments showed the commitment to the “ongoing development of the bank”.

The bank has yet to name a replacement for Richard McDonnell who stepped down as chief operating officer at the end of last month.

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) is carrying out a review of its operations with the downsizing or possible closure of its 44-branch Halifax network under consideration. Mr Mohan told The Irish Times that the review was “open-ended”.

He would not comment on the options being considered.

He said that the appointment of a new head of commercial banking and head of risk represented a “reshaping” of the bank’s very large loan portfolio. Mr McEvoy is reviewing the number of loans within the bank’s overall €33.4 billion Irish loan book that will be transferred to the risk insurance scheme run by the UK government, the British equivalent of the Irish Government’s Nama “bad bank” plan.

Last week Lloyds Banking Group set aside €1.2 billion to cover losses on its Irish loan book for the first half of the year. The group’s international division, which includes Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and the Halifax Irish branches, posted a loss of €1.4 billion for the six-month period.

The bank has been hit by a sharp increase in bad debts, particularly on its €10 billion in loans to property investors and developers who account for just under a third of the bank’s Irish loan book.

Impaired loans in the Irish bank totalled €4.7 billion or 14 per cent of overall loans at the end of June compared with €1.8 billion or 5.7 per cent of loans six months earlier.