Francesca McDonagh is moving to Credit Suisse after five years in charge of Bank of Ireland. Photograph: Naoise CulhaneShortly after taking over as chief executive of Bank of Ireland almost five years ago, Francesca McDonagh made a point of blocking off a few hours every month in her busy schedule for a particular kind of meeting.
Insiders agree that Francesca McDonagh has left her mark on Bank of Ireland. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Indeed, it seemed, before those deals were unveiled, that McDonagh was missing out on opportunities as Permanent TSB and AIB went about carving up Ulster Bank between themselves and AIB agreed to buy back its former Goodbody Stockbrokers unit.And while her predecessor, Richie Boucher, ran Bank of Ireland following the crash with an obsession of repaying the bank’s €4.8 billion taxpayer bailout, McDonagh has seen off the State as a key shareholder.
It included a plan to grow the bank’s net loans, which had contracted in the decade following the 2008 financial crash, by 20 per cent to €90 billion, cutting running costs by €200 million to €1.7 billion, doubling the profitability of its UK business and delivering a 10 per cent return of shareholders equity. All by the end of 2021.
‘If she’s displeased with you, you’ll know from her body language. But I’ve never seen her raise her voice’ McDonagh, whose paternal grandparents hail from Galway and Laois and whose mother’s family fled Egypt during the Suez crisis in the 1950s, has spoken a number of times of how her relatively modest background – going to school at a Catholic state comprehensive in Croydon, south London, and having to use her powers of persuasion to secure a spot studying philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University – has shaped her.
The turnaround is backed up by data. Bank of Ireland’s so-called culture index – measured by surveys carried out by employee engagement agency Karian and Box – has jumped from 54 per cent of staff scoring positively on number of questions testing the bank’s culture in 2018 to 75 per cent last year. The readings compare with a global benchmark for financial services firms, which has hovered around 72-73 per cent over the period.
While public sector roll in it, FFFG interference went to far, tying hands of banks to worsen yellow pack worker situation. Regular staff, No bonus or rises. Hearing skilled workers leave to become delivery men😂 FFFG Paschald went too far. CEO gone too now, better offers in UK