CEO Jeremy Masding to quit PTSB next year

The bank which is 75% owned by the Government has come back from the brink since 2012 when he joined the bank.

However, the search for a new chief executive is likely to renew the focus on the Government’s pay cap, which some senior executives from rival banks had sought in the past to lift.

Mr Masding, who was paid €544,000 last year, will not be in line for an exit package when he departs in 2020.

When he took over, the bank was in a parlous position holding a huge amount of non-performing loans on its books.

By this year, the bank hailed a major turning point after moving from managing an underwater loan book to investing in technology and then starting to offload, following an initial uncertain start, some of those soured loans. However, around 10% of its loan book is still non-performing, much higher than most of its rivals.

To the surprise of many, the bank was able to sell shares in an initial public offering in 2015 in which the Government cut its stake to 75%.

Irish banks in recent years have been weighed by the fallout of Brexit as investors shunned Irish and British assets.

Permanent TSB was this year fined a record €21m by the Central Bank for its part in the industry-wide tracker mortgage scandal that had its genesis more than a decade ago.

“Jeremy and his team oversaw a very complex and challenging turnaround which has restored Permanent TSB to a position of significance in the Irish banking market,” said chairman Robert Elliott.

“Jeremy leaves the bank in an immeasurably stronger position than when he took up the role.

“On behalf of the board, I want to express our deep appreciation for his huge commitment over the past eight years.”