ACCBank chief executive Colm Darling is to step down, its parent, Rabobank, announced yesterday.

He is to be replaced on an interim basis by Adrian Hegarty, current chief executive of Friends First, which is owned by Eureko, a company in which Rabobank has a 37 per cent stake.

Mr Darling had been with the bank for 11 years and served as chief executive for the past seven, overseeing its privatisation through its €165 million sale to Rabobank in March 2002.

ACCBank is largely regarded in industry circles as having underperformed compared to many of the newer arrivals such as Bank of Scotland, which this week rebranded as Halifax, and National Irish Bank, which recently relaunched under the new ownership of Danske Bank.

It was also recently at the centre of a controversial lend-to-invest scheme which it operated some years ago. ACCBank lent around €500 million to thousands of customers to buy geared tracker bonds which carried heavy tax, charges and interest rates. Staff and customers expressed concern over the bonds, which had poor returns.

The bank's decision to stop selling the bonds led to a drop in pretax profits of 53 per cent to €32.5 million for 2005.

A spokesman for Rabobank said that Mr Darling's departure was not linked to the scheme.

Mr Hegarty will continue in his current role in Friends First and stay on as ACCBank's interim chief executive at least until the middle of next year.