Two senior business executives have resigned as directors of Enba, the Dublin-based holding company that is a major shareholder in Internet bank First-e.
Records filed with the Company's Registration Office show Mr Peter Blumenwitz, a partner in venture capital group Apax Partners, resigned from the board of directors at the end of April.
This followed the resignation of Enba director and chairman Sir Nicholas Redmayne, a prominent figure in the international banking community and former chief executive of Kleinworth Benson.
The two board members have not been replaced with new appointees. Instead, Mr Gerhard Huber has been appointed as chairman of Enba.
A company spokesman said yesterday Mr Redmayne was still a shareholder in the firm and his resignation had been expected in line with previously expressed personal and business commitments.
He said Mr Blumenwitz, who represented Enba shareholder Apax Partners on the board of directors, remained a member of a board sub-committee.
But the loss of two prominent board members will not help Enba at a time when the company faces an uphill struggle to guide its Internet banking subsidiary, First-e, towards profitability.
Mr Huber has said First-e needs to raise $30 million (€35 million) funding to become self-financing following the decision by Spanish bank BBVA to terminate a merger with Internet bank UNO-e earlier this year.
First-e's annual return for the 1999 financial year, which was filed with the Company's Registration Office in May, shows the Internet bank incurred a loss before tax of £8,675,003 (€11,022,087) during the year.
According to the records, for much of this time the bank employed 27 staff. Therefore, the losses for the financial year 2000, when the bank employed more than 400 staff and set up several major advertising campaigns, could be substantially higher.
