Bank of Ireland announces new investment business structure with three new Managing Director appointments at BIAM

"The newly appointed management team has a wealth of experience and an excellent track record in each of their specialist fields. I believe that this is the best structure for our business to compete successfully in this rapidly changing industry and that this high calibre specialist team has the necessary drive and expertise to deliver real value to our customers."

Bank of Ireland today (Wednesday 19 July 2006) announced a new investment business structure with the appointment of three new Managing Directors* at Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) that will add leadership depth and breadth to its existing investment team.

This new structure has been designed to accelerate the turnaround in performance, reflect our customers' changing needs for more specialist and sophisticated products and further align our business to trends in the global investment industry.

This new structure:

• introduces a global research platform which will be available to each of BIAM's investment teams and announces that Chris Johns has been appointed Managing Director of Global Research. This is a newly created position and Chris will have direct responsibility for all global equity, fixed income and property research. Chris is an Investment Strategist at Collins Stewart. His previous posts include Head of Research at ABN AMRO; Director of Investment Strategy at Allied Irish Capital Management, Dublin; Chief Economist for Bank of Ireland; and Economist at HM Treasury and at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
  
  Chris has also tutored in economics at Cambridge University and City University. He is a member of The Economic Research Advisory Panel since his appointment by the Welsh Assembly Government in April 2002. His appointment as Managing Director of Global Research also marks a return to BIAM where he worked in the early 90's.



• brings together BIAM's equity team under the leadership of Paul Boyne who has been appointed Managing Director - Global Equities. In his new role Paul will be responsible for the management of BIAM's €30bn global equity book. Paul joined BIAM in 2005 from Morgan Stanley Investment Management in London, where he worked since 1993.
  
  Paul holds a Masters in Business Studies from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, University College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Accountants.



• brings together all fixed income and specialist investment product teams under Sean Crowe who has been appointed Managing Director - Global Fixed Income and Specialist Products. Sean will be responsible for growing our fixed income, credit and property portfolios and will also have direct responsibility for the delivery of new products. He is currently Global Head of Trading and Investment at Bank of Ireland Global Markets, where he is responsible for all fixed income, foreign exchange, money market and derivative activities accounting for a current balance sheet of €115bn. He also manages a team of 60 trading and investment professionals.
  
  Sean is an executive director of Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank and an associate of the Society of Investment Analysts. He is a graduate of NIHE/University of Limerick.

According to Mick Sweeney, Chief Executive, BIAM: "I am delighted to announce a new investment business structure that I believe is appropriate for the strategic direction and growth of our business. Today's announcement will strengthen the research driven approach and investment capability within BIAM. It also reflects a trend that is already underway in a number of leading international investment houses of moving to a multi-specialist structure.

"The newly appointed management team has a wealth of experience and an excellent track record in each of their specialist fields. I believe that this is the best structure for our business to compete successfully in this rapidly changing industry and that this high calibre specialist team has the necessary drive and expertise to deliver real value to our customers."

Mick Sweeney continued: "BIAM remains firmly committed to its value discipline, bottom-up stock picking approach to investing. I am steadfast in my resolve to turnaround investment performance and we will continue to invest whatever resources are required to ensure that this objective is met. I am confident that this new structure, driven by the calibre of today's appointments, will repay the confidence our customers have continued to show in us.

"I believe that this new structure demonstrates our commitment to our investment approach, adding significantly to our research process and providing the growth and leadership capability in terms of our existing and new product portfolios.

"I am also pleased to announce that Chris Reilly, who has led BIAM's investment team as Chief Investment Officer for the last 20 years will remain until the transition to the new structure is complete, in order to provide continuity", he added.

Ends

*subject to regulatory approval.

Contact:

Dan Loughrey
Head of Group Corporate Communications
Tel: 00 353 1 604 3833

Anna McIvor
BIAM
Tel: 00 353 1 637 8262