EY’s David McNamara to be AIB’s next chief economist

It’s a changing of the guard at AIB’s economics team. Happy trails to Oliver Mangan, who is retiring after a long career at AIB, most recently as chief economist at the pillar bank.

Mangan will be replaced David McNamara, who will join the bank from EY where he is director of economic advisory. McNamara will be “responsible for shaping AIB’s macroeconomic research, insights and analysis for national and international stakeholders and customers”, said AIB.

In his role at EY, the new man is responsible for macroeconomic research and insights to the private and public sectors. He has led economic research into big investment projects, was seconded to the Government of Ireland to support Brexit preparations and has supported EY’s clients in navigating the effects of global macroeconomic events in recent years, the bank added.

McNamara leaves for AIB after a five-year stint at EY. That followed close to seven years at Davy Stockbrokers where he worked as an economist in the research team.

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While AIB isn’t an investment bank, the role of the research team in a big bank may appear to have been devalued in the years since the EU’s MiFid II regulations forced the big investment banks to unbundle research from its main services and required clients to pay for research separately. In years gone by it had been bundled in with the various execution services on offer. The rules were brought in to remove perceived conflicts of interest between research and trades the banks were trying to sell investors.

As ever though, there were unintended consequences. In this case, anecdotal evidence suggests that research coverage has fallen since the rules were brought in and now research and execution services may end up being bundled back together again.

Meanwhile, McNamara will immediately become one of the more visible economists in Ireland. Mangan is a well-known media commentator, especially for the purchasing managers’ index, published monthly.