Jeremy Masding will step down as chief executive of Permanent TSB (PTSB) during 2020 having returned the Irish bank to profit, and to the local stock market, during his eight years in charge.

The mortgage lender, the smallest of the three domestically-owned banks that survived Ireland's financial crash a decade ago, said on Thursday it had started a process to select a new CEO, with the date of Masding's departure yet to be determined.

It gave no reason for his departure and did not say if he would receive any kind of a severance package, but Masding said he was excited at the prospect of taking on new challenges in Ireland or internationally.

The Welshman took over the then banking arm of nationalised bancassurer Irish Life & Permanent in February 2012 as the struggling unit sought to convince the country's then EU/IMF bailout lenders to allow it remain as a standalone business.

Three years later, the bank became the first Irish lender to launch a public share sale since the crisis, returning 400 million euros of its 2.7 billion euro state bailout by cutting the government's shareholding to 75%.

PTSB was also hit with a record 21 million euro fine this year, the largest ever handed down by the country's central bank, for overcharging mortgage customers after it became the first Irish lender caught up in the sector-wide scandal.

"Jeremy and his team oversaw a very complex and challenging turnaround which has restored Permanent TSB to a position of significance in the Irish banking market," Permanent TSB Chairman Robert Elliott said in a statement.

"Jeremy leaves the bank in an immeasurably stronger position than when he took up the role."

Masding, who spent most of his career with Barclays before moving to Dublin, is the longest-serving of Ireland's current bank CEOs. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie