Bank of Ireland's chief economist is leaving to join Friends First. Mr Jim Power (38) joins as director of investment strategy at Friends First Asset management and will start next month. He has been with the bank for nine years and previously worked at AIB.

While at Bank of Ireland he was a trenchant euro-sceptic and his views were not always held by the bank. He was recently wrongly described by the British Shadow Chancellor, Mr Michael Portillo, on BBC2's Newsnight as the chief economic adviser to the Central Bank. This caused some embarrassment for the regulatory authority and Bank of Ireland.