Richie Boucher

Richie Boucher (aged 50 in 2009) is the current chief executive officer (CEO) of the Bank of Ireland, Ireland's largest bank. He took over on 25 February 2009 from Brian Goggin, who resigned following the injection of Irish Government funds and the guarantee of deposits. His 2012 pay was €843,000.

Richie Boucher was chief executive of Bank of Ireland's Irish Retail Division since January 2006 where he oversaw the company's land bank and development loans growing to €7.1 billion. He was appointed as a Director of the Group in October 2006. He joined Bank of Ireland in December 2003 as chief executive, Corporate Banking from the Royal Bank of Scotland where he had been Regional managing director – Corporate Banking, London and South East England and previously held a number of prominent roles with the Ulster Bank Group and also worked in ICC Bank.

Born in (Northern Rhodesia) Zambia, he was primarily educated at St George's College, Harare, a private boarding school in (Rhodesia) Zimbabwe, for his last year in Rockwell College, Co Tipperary, and Trinity College Dublin, where he graduated with a degree in business before pursuing a career in banking. He has never lost his distinctive Rhodesian/Southern African accent though he did spend his first seventeen years in Africa.

On 2 July 2008 he told the Oireachtas Finance Committee "unequivocally, we do not think there is a Northern Rock in Ireland," and the Central Bank here has stricter rules for how much ready cash banks must hold than any other country where the group does business. "We do not believe that we have capital problems. The issues that we face are more down to liquidity rather than capital,” and added there were no arrears on his bank's portfolio of 100% mortgages.

In January 2011, he admitted that information supplied to the Dáil on bank staff bonuses was both misleading and incorrect. Boucher accepted that Bank of Ireland was responsible for Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan putting '‘erroneous information'’ on the Dáil record to the effect that no performance-related bonuses were paid to staff. The next month a top civil servant accused Boucher of "hiding behind" words and misleading the government during a blazing row over the bonuses.

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