US rogue trader's boss picks up £2m

BOSSES of Allied Irish Banks' US offshoot, Allfirst, are not being pushed into the poorhouse by the £495m currency losses run up by rogue trader John Rusnak.

Allfirst chairman Frank Bramble, 54, will get a £2m lump sum when he retires on June 1, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveals. The payment revives controversy over whether AIB and Allfirst top managers escaped blame.

When the scale of Rusnak's losses, undetected over a five-year period, was revealed, there were calls for Bramble and Allfirst's chief executive, Susan Keating, to be fired. Both kept their jobs and, though Bramble's retirement was announced, AIB said it was unconnected to the currency debacle.

AIB fired six officials, including Rusnak's supervisors. Bramble (salary £507,000) would have been entitled to a £293,000 pension at 60. Allfirst has instead agreed to pay him £2m.