ANGLO IRISH bank chief executive David Drumm pointed out at the bank's half-year results in May that he and the other four executive directors had 90 years' banking experience between them and joked that it "felt like longer" given the difficult times they endured in recent months.

This kind of information is designed to reassure investors that the bank has a breadth of experience that includes grey-haired bankers who can remember the bad times before the decade-long lending, property and consumer boom in Ireland.

The age profile of most Irish bank chiefs is relatively young. Of the chief executives at the top four Irish quoted financial companies, Drumm, at 41, is the youngest. He and his counterpart at Bank of Ireland, Brian Goggin, 56, have been in charge of their respective banks since 2004.

Eugene Sheehy, 53, became AIB chief executive in the summer of 2005, while Denis Casey, 48, succeeded David Went as chief executive of Irish Life & Permanent last year.

Another young bank chief is Andrew Healy, 41, who is in charge of National Irish Bank. A
recent appointee to the top position at a leading Irish financial services group is Andrew Langford, 38, who became chief executive of insurer FBD Holdings after the untimely passing of Philip Fitzsimons in April.

Fergus Murphy, 44, became chief executive of EBS Building Society in January after a long stint at Rabobank, including a short period in charge of its Irish subsidiary, ACC Bank, last year.

Murphy's counterpart at the State's only other mutual building society, Michael Fingleton, stepped down from the board of Irish Nationwide when he turned 70 last January. But he's set to remain as chief executive of the building society for some time yet, as the business is unlikely to be sold in the short-term given how the banking crisis has affected financial stocks.