Top executive left with €3.2m ‘goodbye money’

THE former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank’s British arm walked away from the bank last year with €3.2m in goodbye money.

Declan Quilligan had been in the post since 2005 and before that he was the head of the institution’s banking business in Ireland.

Anglo’s annual accounts showed that he was given €844,222 instead of working out his notice and this was topped off with €65,417 in holiday money he had not claimed.

However, the bulk of his parachute payment came by way of a €1.98m cash contribution for his pension.

When he left the bank, he had loans of more than €3m outstanding. For this reason, Anglo held back his pension pot, €915,625 after tax, to cover part of the bill.

Another €439,829 was held on deposit to help service the rest of what he owed the bank.

He left the nationalised institution in March 2010 after receiving a bonus of €262,223 for work he did in 2006.

The bank had to stump up €409,205 in taxes that were due, but Anglo’s accounts said the majority of this had been repaid to it.

Mr Quilligan moved to take over the British operations after working his way up through a bank he joined in 1990. He survived the cull of key managers following the nationalisation in 2009 and remained on until the second clear-out in March 2010.