THE HEAD of the Republic of Ireland operations at Allied Irish Banks (AIB) is stepping down from the board of the bank and moving to a newly created role.

The bank said Donal Forde was moving from his role as managing director of AIB Bank (ROI) to become director of group strategy.

Robbie Henneberry, currently head of the bank’s operations in Northern Ireland and Britain, will succeed Mr Forde as head of the bank’s business in the Republic.

AIB said Mr Forde would not seek re-election to the board at the bank’s annual general meeting (agm)on May 13th.

Mr Forde joined the bank in 1978, became head of its Irish operations in 2002, was appointed to the board in 2007 and was AIB’s third-highest paid executive in 2008 with a package of €776,000.

Mr Forde was responsible for the bank’s Irish operations at a time when property and construction lending expanded rapidly.

AIB Bank (ROI) was the only division of the bank to be loss-making in 2008 after the division’s bad debts increased sharply, primarily over losses on its €10.8 billion development loan book.

The division reported a pretax loss of €52 million in 2008, compared with a profit of €1 billion the previous year, after setting aside €1.3 billion to cover loan losses – up from €104 million in 2007.

Mr Henneberry’s appointment is seen as an attempt by AIB to focus on problem loans as he has experience in credit management.

AIB said senior independent director Mike Sullivan, a former US ambassador to Ireland, will retire from the board at the agm.