Bank of Ireland blames Irish pay cap

Bank of Ireland blamed state-imposed curbs on bankers pay. Chief Financial Officer Myles O’Grady would leave the bank and join Irish food group Musgrave. Ireland capped executive pay at 500,000 euros a year. This is during the euro zone’s costliest banking rescue, which was more than a decade ago. All forms of variable pay and fringe benefits were banned. Bank of Ireland Chief Executive Francesca McDonagh said that this had left the country’s largest bank by assets at a competitive disadvantage.

She gave a statement that Myles’ decision to leave the Irish banking sector highlights the challenge that remuneration restrictions represent for Irish banks. The normalisation of their operations is now vital to the long-term sustainability of the indigenous banking sector. O’Grady will remain in his position until he joins Musgrave in April 2022. O’Grady’s predecessor, Andrew Keating, left the bank two years ago. In 2018, former Allied Irish Banks Chairman Richard Pym described Ireland’s banks as a training ground for rivals. The Irish government pumped 64 billion euros into its banks. This is after the 2008 global financial crisis had no plans to ease the restrictions. It still retains a majority stake in AIB and permanent tsb.