Richard Waugh: head of one of Canada's largest banks

SCOTIABANK Ireland, one of the biggest foreign lenders based in the IFSC, increased its profits by more than 90% last year.

The Canadian lender said pre-tax profits in the year to the end of October 2009 jumped to €192.8m from €100m a year earlier. The increase came despite a sharp reduction in interest income, which fell by nearly half. That drop was offset by higher fee and trading income, according to accounts for the banks just filed.

Despite the rise in profits, the bank cut the dividend to its parent company by half to just €580,000. The bank retain­ed earnings of €962m and assets of €9.5bn.

Toronto-based Scotiabank is one of the largest in Canada with 68,000 employees and is headed by Richard Waugh.

Scotiabank's Irish operation employs 51 people and focuses on investment banking, treasury management and wholesale lending. According to the accounts, the wages bill for its Irish workforce fell to €5.6m, a reduction of 21% year-on-year and share-based payments were also cut by 23%.

Directors' fees were cut by 51%.