So it's all change at Anglo. After 22 years, Seán FitzPatrick is ready to relinquish the chief executive's role to David Drumm, a young career banker who is an unknown figure beyond the bank.

Speaking about the appointment yesterday, Mr FitzPatrick, pointed out that he had been 38 years old - Mr Drumm is 37 - when he took charge of the then-small bank, which is today worth about €5 billion.

Mr FitzPatrick will work closely with Mr Drumm over the next few months and will continue to oversee the bank's operations as chairman of its board of directors. "We are handling the succession in a seamless way," he explained.

Investors are pleased that his successor comes from the bank's own talent pool. While few know Mr Drumm, his familiarity with Anglo's successful business model is his chief selling point as far as they are concerned.

Two years ago, the elevation of Mr Tiarnan O'Mahoney to the newly created position of chief operations officer was viewed as part of a grooming process that would ultimately lead to his taking over the top job.

That role spanned all aspects of the bank's business and Mr O'Mahoney chaired its 22-member executive management board, which oversaw the day-to-day management of its operations.

He is Anglo's second highest-paid executive, earning €1.5 million last year.

Mr O'Mahoney had also worked closely with Mr FitzPatrick and had served as a director of the board since 1993.

Earlier this year, the bank appointed Tom Browne as a new director, which was also seen as strengthening his candidature for Mr FitzPatrick's position.

Mr Browne has worked most of his career at Anglo and has been closely associated with building the bank's loan book, particularly in Dublin.

Three years ago, he left the bank to become chief executive of Devey Group, a property development company.

He returned to Anglo after 18 months and assumed responsibility for developing its business banking and wealth management business.

The fourth candidate, John Rowan, has been on the board since 1998 and has led Anglo's substantial growth in the UK, where it employs 300 people.

Now that the bank has dealt with the succession issue, the next immediate challenge will be to retain its top executive team.

Anglo's rivals will be closely monitoring the change at the top - they could even try to poach some of the disappointed candidates.

Mr FitzPatrick said that each of these individuals would take time to "reflect" on their disappointment and did not expect that some would leave.

"That is not to say that there won't be departures. They were all working hard to get the job but there was only one job,"he added.