Healy appointed NIB chief executive

NATIONAL Irish Bank (NIB) has appointed 38-year-old Andrew Healy as its new chief executive.

Mr Healy joins NIB from Ulster Bank, where he spent the bulk of his career and most recently held the role of managing director of its retail operations in the North.

He replaces John Trethowan, who acted as chief executive since the bank was formally taken over by Denmark’s Danske Bank.

Danske chairman Peter Straarup said there had been strong interest in the position and Danske had sounded out top executives throughout the Irish banking industry before picking Mr Healy. He said Mr Healy was the right man for the job and was “young, energetic but experienced”.

Mr Healy built up an impressive track record within Ulster by running its credit card business and customer service operations on both sides of the border. Ulster wished Mr Healy well in his new role.

Mr Straarup also said yesterday that the integration of NIB and its sister bank, Northern, was on target. Both banks had good people but had suffered from under-investment in the past, he said.

Mr Straarup said Danske considered the Irish market attractive and was unworried by the prospect of Bank of Scotland’s entry to the retail market here later this year.