Fergus Murphy

The board of EBS has still has not settled on appointees for its vacant chairman and financial director positions, despite four months of searching.

The two posts have been vacant since former chair Mark Moran and financial director Alan Merriman departed in a top-level bloodletting at the mutual in April.

Senior sources at EBS describe the executive search as "well-advanced", but said appointments were not imminent as chief executive Fergus Murphy had not yet settled on his preferred candidates. They said neither remuneration nor uncertainty over Nama were factors in the slow pace of the executive search, which began only after Murphy and his fellow directors secured their re-relection at the EBS AGM on 28 May.

Unlike AIB, which has been wrangling with the Department of Finance over a suitable replacement for outgoing chief executive Eugene Sheehy, EBS has not been consulting with F inance officials over its appointment process, as the building society has not had to take a capital injection from the state yet.