The Dutch group, Rabobank, has appointed a new board of directors to ACCBank, with chief executive, Mr Colm Darling, the only current board member to survive. Mr Pieter van der Weijden, Rabobank's head of international retail banking, has been appointed chairman of ACCBank. He succeeds Mr Padraic O'Connor.
Mr O'Connor was appointed by the Government in 1999 to oversee the merger of ACC with TSB bank and its subsequent flotation.
That proposition was abandoned in 2000 mainly due to weak stock market conditions. Mr O'Connor remained with the State-owned bank, leading its team of executives at the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts investigation into bogus non-resident accounts.
The bank subsequently paid €22.6 million to the Revenue Commissioners based on an underlying liability of €9.5 million plus interest and penalties of €13.1 million. His role then focused on preparing the bank for a trade sale at the request of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy. Rabobank emerged as the only bidder for the bank last December and purchased it from the Government for €165 million.
The Minister for Finance yesterday announced the completion of the sale process and wished the bank's board and staff success in the future. A spokesman said Rabobank had made no further changes at senior management level at ACC.
