It's behind you, Gerry

A case of poor timing for Gerry Keenan, the head of Irish Life Investment Managers, at the annual dinner of the Irish Association of Investment Managers, where he is chairman.

A copy of Kiernan's speech was circulated to the media ahead of the bash last Thursday in which he proclaimed the economy was "on the right road". The speech came just hours after figures from the Central Statistics Office showed the economy contracted sharply in the second quarter. Even finance minister Brian Lenihan, who has been talking up the economy in recent weeks, was forced to admit on the day the numbers weren't encouraging.

Keenan was in thumping form, hitting out at the "doomsday" scenarios being painted by some commentators, who were creating a sense of "hysteria", "pessimism" and "bedlam" about the economy. Keenan did attempt to lighten the mood, making a joking reference to James Bond being the only bond most people had heard of a year ago.

Mike gets spiked

Irishman Mike Geoghegan is the big loser from the boardroom shuffles at HSBC. Geoghegan, who turned down a place at UCD to take a job at the bank nearly four decades ago, has been chief executive of HSBC through the worst of the financial crisis and has done a fairly good job as the bank avoided the need for any government cash.

A fitting end to his career would have been to take over as chairman when the current chair, Stephen Green, joins the UK government early next year. But that plan has been dashed, with Geoghegan told last week that he wouldn't be moving upstairs.

He's now expected to leave the bank at the end of the year and will reportedly be replaced by Stuart Gulliver, its investment banking boss.

NIB and union clash

National Irish Bank (NIB) is on a collision course with the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) over plans to close more of its branches. The union is understood to be deeply unhappy about the plan. While no jobs will be lost as a result of the latest closures, the union is understood to be planning to withdraw co-operation with NIB and now has serious concerns about NIB's future in Ireland.

NIB shut 25 of its branches last year but said its owner, Denmark's Danske Bank, was here for the long haul. The IBOA's concerns about that commitment have been heightened by the bank's decision to remove cash services from its branches.

A game of risk

AIB has rightly received much praise for moving ahead with its attempts to raise €7.4bn. But its search for a chief risk officer appears to have stalled.

AIB boss Colm Doherty said when he took over that he would pluck an outsider for the key job. Nine months on, the role remains vacant. There have been mutterings that the government's salary cap is impeding the bank's search but it should be remembered Doherty is getting more than the cap of €500,000. It would be embarrassing for the bank, ahead of its rights issue to raise further cash, not to have a risk officer in place.