Bank of Ireland appoints Francesca McDonagh as new CEO

Francesca McDonagh, 42, will succeed Richie Boucher as CEO, who is stepping down later this year

Bank of Ireland has appointed HSBC's Head of Retail Banking Francesca McDonagh as its new Chief Executive.

Ms McDonagh, 42, will succeed Richie Boucher as CEO, who is stepping down later this year.

She will also take up the position of Executive Director on the Board of the Group on 2 October.

The bank has said her total remuneration will match that of Mr Boucher, who earned more than €950,000 last year.

Ms McDonagh is currently Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management, UK and Europe with HSBC.

In this role she is responsible for all aspects of retail customer service, channels, products and segments of HSBC's three brands.

Ms McDonagh, an Oxford University graduate, has significant experience of technological transformation of both digital and core banking systems.

In the UK, she re-platformed HSBC’s digital offering and introduced a constant flow of innovative improvements to the bank’s systems.

She has been with HSBC for 20 years, during which time she has held a number of senior leadership roles in the bank across seven different countries.

The British banker, who Bank of Ireland said has Irish grandparents, has also served as deputy chair of the British Bankers Association trade body.

Other contenders for the role included Bank of Ireland chief financial officer Andrew Keating and retail head Liam McLoughlin, a source familiar with the process told Reuters.

Commenting on her appointment, Bank of Ireland Governor Archie Kane said: "The Board conducted a thorough search and from a strong field selected this exceptional candidate.

"I am very pleased that we have been successful in attracting a person of the calibre and experience of Francesca to the Group.

"She has been with HSBC for 20 years, during which time she has held a number of senior leadership roles in the bank across seven different countries.

"We very much look forward to working with her over the coming years as she leads the bank and its experienced management team into the next phase of its development."
 
Mr Kane added that Mr Boucher "has been an outstanding success at Bank of Ireland, and leaves the Bank in a much stronger position than he inherited when he took up the role of CEO in February 2009".

Mr Boucher announced in March he would step down as CEO of the lender before the end of 2017.

He will also resign as a director of the company later this year.

Mr Boucher, who joined Ireland's largest lender by assets in 2003, headed its corporate banking and retail divisions before being appointed CEO in February 2009.

This was shortly after Bank of Ireland, like all other Irish lenders, sought a state bailout.

Under the Zambian-born banker, Bank of Ireland became the only domestically owned lender to stay out of state control when it attracted €1.1 billion of private investment at the height of the euro zone debt crisis in 2011.