A TOP executive at Bank of Scotland (Ireland) is stepping down just over a year after being put in charge of developing its Irish retail banking and home loans operations.
Antoinette Dunne (41) has been with the bank for over 20 years. She was a key figure behind the initial launch of Halifax into Ireland in 2006, and is a member of the bank’s executive board. Prior to her current position, she was chief operating officer at BoSI.
A spokesman for the bank last night confirmed Ms Dunne was leaving the bank. “She has decided the role is not for her,” he said, adding that Bank of Scotland (Ireland) was assessing what to do with the position. “The process of managing Halifax and the intermediary business will be decided shortly.”
The board of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) met recently to discuss options to downsize the company’s operations, with significant changes to the bank’s Halifax retail business under discussion.
The bank’s new parent, Lloyds Banking Group, which is 43 per cent owned by the UK government, is currently assessing all its overseas businesses.
Lloyds injected €750 million into its Irish subsidiary late last year to help the bank absorb rising loan impairments and to assist the bank with new lending.
Bank of Scotland (Ireland) made a loss of €250 million in 2008 after writing off €553 million on bad loans mostly to developers – a near 17-fold increase on the previous year’s bad debts. The loss compared with a pretax profit of €272 million in 2007.
Ms Dunne was appointed to her current post in May 2008. At the time, then bank chief executive Mark Duffy said the development of retail and intermediary banking was a key driver for growth.
