Bank of Ireland Group announces appointment of Tony Wyatt as Director, Customer Operations.

Bank of Ireland today (Monday, 22 August 2005) announced the appointment of Tony Wyatt (56) as Director of Customer Operations at the Group. He will take up this appointment in early September and will report to the Group Chief Executive. He will also be a member of the Group Executive Committee.

Tony Wyatt had formerly been Executive Director, Manufacturing at Abbey National plc., and has held a number of senior positions in leading change and development in financial services organisations. He also has extensive experience of customer service delivery in the telecommunications and energy industries.

In this new role with Bank of Ireland Group, Tony Wyatt will lead the development of a Group-wide Customer Operations function as a core part of the Strategic Group Transformation Programme currently underway. In this role he will combine the various Retail Operations functions of the Group in Ireland and the UK into a single streamlined organisation.

Announcing the appointment, Group Chief Executive Brian Goggin said 'I am delighted to welcome Tony Wyatt to Bank of Ireland Group as Director, Customer Operations. This is a further significant step in our Strategic Transformation Programme and is core to the changed organisation structure that I announced earlier this year. Tony brings a wealth of international experience and expertise in large-scale customer based change in a range of major organisations. I am confident that this will prove invaluable to Bank of Ireland as we progress further in our transformation to a more efficient, customer-focused organisation capable of realising our growth ambitions.'

Tony Wyatt's Background:
Tony Wyatt was a partner in Novantas, a management consultancy firm specialising in customer-centric business strategies, Managing Director, Operations and Technology at NewPower, a deregulated energy marketer in the US and Vice President, Operations, Technology and Planning at AT&T. He has also been Director of Group Development at Guardian Royal Exchange Plc., and Banking Systems Director at HSBC/Midland.

Strategic Group Transformation Programme:
In March 2005 Bank of Ireland announced a major Strategic Transformation Programme designed to reduce costs and to change the organisation structure to a more consolidated operating model. This is set to transform the support services and retail manufacturing infrastructure and ensure the efficiency and flexibility to enhance competitiveness and to capitalise on growth opportunities.

The immediate priorities under the Programme consist of specific initiatives in the retail business in Ireland, the streamlining of Group support services and the consolidation of processing activities currently dispersed throughout the Group.

Through this Programme Bank of Ireland is targeting an annual reduction in costs of €120 million over four years. This consists of €30 million savings in 2005/2006, increasing to €75 million in 2006/2007, to €105 million in 2007/2008, resulting in an annual reduction in costs of €120 million in 2008/2009. A reduction of 2,100 in the Group's staff numbers is associated with this Programme.

The rationalisation and implementation costs to achieve the savings will amount to approximately €210 million. In addition, capital expenditure of approximately €40 million will be invested in technology and automation.

On 27th July Bank of Ireland welcomed the acceptance by members of the Irish Bank Officials Association of proposals on the employee aspects of the Transformation Programme. This cleared the way for implementation of significant elements of the Programme.

Earlier in the year the Group announced the disposal of its Financial Advice businesses and its Bristol & West branch network as part of the restructuring of its business in the UK.

Ends.

For further information contact:

Dan Loughrey
Head of Group Corporate Communications
Bank of Ireland
Tel: 01 6043833