Outgoing SBCI chief Jane Butler paid €38k bonus in 2024

Bank of Ireland announced that Jane Butler is to return to Bank of Ireland as head of corporate and SME banking, where she will lead a team of 200 serving the needs of 3,000 companies across the island of Ireland. File picture

June Butler, in her last full year as chief executive of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI), was paid a bonus of €38,000.

Earlier this month, the Bank of Ireland announced that Ms Butler is to return to Bank of Ireland as head of corporate and SME banking, where she will lead a team of 200 serving the needs of 3,000 companies across the island of Ireland.

The SBCI’s annual report for 2024 shows that Ms Butler’s bonus of €38,000 was part of a total remuneration package of €353,000 — up €11,000 on the €344,000 for 2023.

The remuneration package was made up of a salary of €250,000, annual taxable benefits of €24,000, €41,000 in pension contributions, and the €38,000 in performance-related pay. This was up €8,000 on the €30,000 bonus paid out for 2023.

The report states that discretionary performance-related payments “are intended to reward exceptional performance”. SBCI made €192,000 of performance-related payments for 2024.

The main activity of SBCI is to support the provision of lower-cost loans to businesses and consumers using Irish and international sources of funding and operating the credit guarantee schemes on behalf of the Department of Enterprise.

In the annual report, lapses in internal control attract the attention of Comptroller and Auditor General, Séamus McCarthy.

Mr McCarthy reports that a review of the operation of the 2012, 2015, and 2017 credit guarantee scheme identified errors that had occurred in the collection of premium payments from borrowers, which are payable directly to the Department of Enterprise.

Over the period 2012 to 2024, amounts totalling €500,000 had not been collected from some borrowers, while €100,000 had been overcollected from other borrowers.

Mr McCarthy stated that SBCI estimates that premium payments totalling €300,000 may not be recoverable. The SBCI is engaging with the department to agree a strategy in relation to the premium payment errors.