The millionaire chief executive of the Bank of Ireland Group resigned yesterday after he admitted using his office computer to view pornography and access an escort agency website.
Michael Soden, 57, issued a statement yesterday afternoon admitting that he had entered websites forbidden under bank policy. He said that the websites visited were not illegal, but did contain links to material of an adult nature.
The surprise resignation is the latest in a series of scandals to engulf the Irish banking sector in the past two weeks. It came in a personal statement to the media issued at 2.30pm.
Soden said he took the decision to resign for 'personal reasons' and had not been pressured. While he maintained the content of the sites he viewed was not illegal, he accepted it was inappropriate and breached bank policy. He apologised to the bank and its employees for any embarrassment caused.
Soden's activities are believed to have been reported by a Bank of Ireland employee who was routinely servicing his computer. The nature of the sites visited is thought to be similar to the content of popular men's magazines.
'The images he viewed would be classed as very soft porn, more like page three or Loaded magazine,' said a source within the bank. 'The IT expert also found a site for an escort agency. It's not clear yet if this was in Ireland or if he used the services of the agency.'
Although an investigation into the CEO's activities is thought to have been under way at the bank for some weeks, the affair only became public after a Dublin newspaper received a tip-off last week.
Eamon Quinn, Business Editor of the Sunday Business Post newspaper, said the resignation came as a result of inquiries made by the paper in relation to an article due to appear in today's paper.
A native of Dublin, Soden has been in his post since 2001. His appointment to one of the most prestigious jobs in Irish banking caused some surprise in the industry.
'I think some people thought it was a rather eccentric choice and I'm not sure the company ever really took him to its heart. He wasn't a particularly successful CEO,' said one senior banking figure yesterday.
Although the governor of the Bank of Ireland, Laurence Crowley, expressed his 'deep regret' yesterday at his colleague's departure, a senior staff member, who declined to be named, accused his former boss of 'stupidity'. 'I don't know what he was thinking of looking at this stuff during office hours. It was madness,' he said.
Soden was previously executive general manager of global business and personal finance at National Australia Bank in Melbourne and has worked in Britain, North America and Scandinavia. He is married and lives in Dublin. He received his secondary school education at Blackrock College in Dublin and is a graduate of UCD.
His resignation is the latest in a string of banking scandals. Yesterday the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, accepted the resignation of the chairman of Aer Lingus, Tom Mulcahy, who is a former senior executive with Allied Irish Banks. Mulcahy resigned from his position with the airline after it was revealed that he was one of five AIB executives who were involved in a controversial offshore investment scheme. AIB said in a statement that the five had 'tax issues'.
Meanwhile, the other former AIB executives involved in the investment scheme have been named. They include a former AIB chief executive, Gerry Scanlan, the outgoing chairman of Irish Life and Permanent, Roy Douglas, David Cronin, for mer treasurer of Allfirst in the US and the late Paddy Dowling, a former AIB deputy chief executive.
Another beneficiary was Diarmuid Moore, formerly the director of group strategic development at AIB in the Eighties.
The revelations came as the bank is being investigated for overcharging certain foreign exchange customers and for assigning payment protection policies to some mortgage holders without their knowledge.
