AIB appoints McLaughlin to lead private banking arm
Gavin McLoughlin AIB has hired David McLaughlin — son of wellknown Dublin stockbroker Kyran McLaughlin
— to lead its private banking unit, the Sunday Independent has learned.
McLaughlin Jr will join from Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) — where he has headed its Irish private banking offering — later this year, an AIB spokeswoman said.
His new role will see him play an important role in increasing AIB’s fee income as the 99.8pc State-owned bank seeks to position itself for a long-mooted IPO, which has been delayed by turbulence on the markets.
Fee income helps improve a bank’s return on capital, as it does not absorb capital like interest-based income from lending. AIB’s private banking unit typically targets high net-worth customers with annual salaries or incomes exceeding €250,000.
McLaughlin, a UCD graduate, previously worked at HSBC and Dresdner Bank before taking a corporate development role at educational software publisher Riverdeep, set up by businessman Barry O’Callaghan. He also held an investor relations role at Elan, the pharma firm that was bought by Perrigo and on whose board his father served.
Kyran McLaughlin has a long association with Davy Stockbrokers, and has held roles including joint chief executive and deputy chairman. He is also on the board of Ryanair, which he advised on its initial flotation in 1997.
AIB, which is headed by chief executive Bernard Byrne, made headlines earlier this week after news emerged that it was to cut 150 jobs across Ireland.
The bank said the job losses in its retail and business banking network would not lead to branch closures or reduced operating hours. An AIB spokeswoman said they would be voluntary.
“There are no compulsory redundancies. There is an opportunity for a limited number of staff to avail of voluntary severance and therefore we have decided to open a programme now. There are no branch closures or reductions in hours associated with this change.”
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said in May that the AIB flotation — which would see up to 25pc of the bank sold off — was unlikely to happen until next year.
“We don’t need to cash out. There was a time we did, to reduce debt levels, but we’ve all these things under control now, so there’s no constraint on us,” Noonan said.
“It’s less likely that we’ll go in the last quarter of this year now, and more likely that we’ll go in the first half of next year, if the market corrects.”