Warm welcome for new chief tempered by questioning of strategy

AIB’s shareholders offered the new executive chairman a pretty warm welcome yesterday as he officiated at the distressed bank’s egm to sanction the sale of its 22% stake in M&T, which was approved.

Niall Murphy, a long-standing critic of practices in AIB, described the appointment of David Hodgkinson as a very welcome development.

“This is one of the happiest days of my life,” he said.