Bank of Ireland names Susan Russell as CEO of Irish retail division

Bank of Ireland has named Susan Russell as chief executive of its Irish retail unit, formally appointing her to a role that she had effectively been carrying out on an acting basis since last September.

Ms Russell, who has been with Bank of Ireland since 2000, has, as a result of the promotion, become the fourth woman member of the lender’s 12-person executive committee.

A spokesman for the bank said the process to find a new CEO of its UK unit was ongoing. The incumbent, Ian McLaughlin, handed in his notice in January and is preparing to take over later this year as head of London-listed sub-prime lender Vanquis Banking Group, which was known as Provident Financial before a rebrand in March.

Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland’s director of business banking John O’Beirne, who had been widely tipped internally as a future member of the group executive committee, handed in his notice last week. The spokesman confirmed his planned departure to The Irish Times, adding that Mr O’Beirne will be taking up an “opportunity in the wider financial services sector”.

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Efforts to secure comment from Mr O’Beirne, who had previously held a number of other leadership roles in the bank, including director of products in retail Ireland, CEO of its mortgage bank and head of credit cards and retail loans, were unsuccessful.

Ms Russell has been acting as head of retail Ireland since last September, when its then CEO, Gavin Kelly, was appointed interim CEO of the wider group between the exit of Francesca McDonagh and appointment of Myles O’Grady to the role. Mr Kelly was named in March as CEO of the group’s corporate and markets division, as it was expanded to also include business banking.

“Susan’s depth of knowledge, coupled with her energy, will be invaluable over the coming period,” said Mr O’Grady of Ms Russell’s appointment. She previously held senior positions in retail banking, finance, digital, strategy and operations at Bank of Ireland.

The retail Ireland division accounted for €846 million of Bank of Ireland’s almost €1.2 billion in underlying pretax profits last year as it benefited from rising interest rates, particularly on surplus deposits stored with the Central Bank.

More recently, the unit completed the purchase of €7.8 billion in loans and €1.8 billion in deposits from KBC Bank Ireland in February as the Belgian-owned lender advances plans to exit the Republic.

Mr O’Grady has set his sights on the bank posting profit returns between this year and 2025 equivalent to about 15 per cent of tangible equity that shareholders hold in the business. That is up from its previous 10 per cent objective and the 10.6 per cent out-turn for last year, excluding noncore costs.