Allfirst chairman Mr Frank Bramble has brought forward his retirement from the expected June 1st date. Mr Bramble, the 53-year-old chairman of AIB's US subsidiary which recently lost $691 million (€777 million) in a foreign exchange trading fraud and a director of AIB, retired yesterday with immediate effect from the AIB board.

He will retire from his position as chairman of Allfirst on April 30th.

Mr Bramble's early retirement from the AIB board means he will not have to attend the board meeting on May 8th or face AIB Group shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting in Belfast on May 29th.

The retirement package of the Allfirst chairman, who was chief executive of the US bank over much of the period when the trading fraud was carried out, consists of a lump sum payment of some $2.9 million and a reduced pension payment of about $6,000 per month.

In addition he has options over some 1.3 million AIB shares at an exercise price of $11.23 per share.

It is understood Mr Bramble commuted a pension of about $60,000 a month to take the up-front cash sum. His pension plan would have provided him with an annual pension of some 60 per cent of the average of his best three years' compensation. In 2000 Mr Bramble received a salary and bonus of some $1.16 million.

The earlier than expected retirement is taking place at the behest of Mr Bramble, an AIB spokesman said yesterday. "He has retired early for personal reasons. A number of meetings in Dublin in May did not suit his personal schedule," an AIB spokesman said.

In one of the biggest trading losses since Mr Nick Leeson brought down Barings in 1995, it was discovered this year that a trader at the Baltimore-based Allfirst subsidiary has cost the bank some $691 million in foreign exchange trading losses.

The June retirement of Mr Bramble was announced in March at the same time as the investigator appointed to look into the Allfirst loss, Mr Eugene Ludwig, found that weak internal controls and management facilitated the trading losses incurred by trader Mr John Rusnak. Six Allfirst executives were fired as a result of the debacle.

A number of investigations into the losses are still ongoing, including examinations by financial regulators. Mr Bramble will be replaced at Allfirst by Mr Eugene Sheehy, who is a former managing director of AIB Bank.

AIB yesterday announced the appointment of a group special risk management adviser to the board. Mr John G. Heimann has been appointed "to provide assurance to the board that the group's risk structures, policies, procedures and governance conform to the best international practice and address all of the risk-related issues identified in the independent report" carried out by Mr Ludwig of the Promontory Financial Group.

When the Ludwig report was announced, AIB said it would appoint an independent risk management adviser.

Mr Heimann has been superintendent of banks for the state of New York, US Comptroller of the Currency and a member of the board and acting chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

His private sector banking experience includes chairmanship of Merrill Lynch Global Financial Institutions, chairmanship of Merrill Lynch Europe and the Middle East and vice-chairmanship of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.