Chief risk officer at Anglo Irish Bank resigns

William McAteer, the chief risk officer and finance director at Anglo Irish Bank, became the latest senior figure to tender his resignation at the troubled Dublin-based firm on Wednesday (January 7).

McAteer's responsibilities will be divided between a new externally appointed chief risk officer, who has yet to be named, and Matt Moran, currently chief financial officer, who has assumed the position of finance director.

In the interim, Peter Butler, the managing director of Anglo Irish's wealth management division, will head the bank's risk management business.

Wednesday's announcement is part of a broader restructuring, following revelations that chairman Sean FitzPatrick borrowed €87 million from the bank over an eight-year period and concealed it by transferring the debt to another bank prior to the end of year results. As of September 30, 2008, a total of €150 million had been lent to the bank's directors.

Anglo Irish Bank considered FitzPatrick's use of the loans to be "inappropriate from a transparency point of view", although not illegal, but the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority said last month that it took "a very serious view of these issues" - its investigation is due to report on January 10. On December 18, FitzPatrick resigned and was replaced by Donal O'Connor, previously a board member at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

On December 19, the following day, group chief executive David Drumm also resigned. The bank intends to appoint a new chief executive prior to the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for January 16.

The firm also plans to strengthen the board with the appointment of a number of new non-executive directors in the near future.

See also: €10 billion recapitalisation programme for Irish banks