Seán Farrell

Bank of Ireland is a traditional, relationship-driven retail and commercial bank with a conservative business philosophy. The bank has a strategy to support customers, strengthen capital, while actively managing it's cost base and the credit risks pertaining to the marketplace.

• Developed and implemented a strategy for the development of the Agriculture sector within Business Banking in BOI, including the introduction of a specialist team of 13 Agricultural Managers between 2012 and 2015.
  
• Manage the sector proposition and approach including the introduction of the bank’s Agri-Flex product which accounts for modern day agricultural commodity price volatility.
• Oversaw and contributed to the on-going lending growth within the portfolio, which has seen BOI continue to provide > 50% of all new lending to the sector including €635m of lending in 2015 alone.
• Staff up-skilling, including the issuance of regular sector update bulletins and provision of agri training workshops, e.g. 2 Dairy Expansion workshops in May 2015, 5 one-day Agri Appreciation courses delivered by Accenture during 2015.
• Risk management of the bank’s agricultural lending portfolio which extends to the preparation of the annual agricultural book and credit policy review and presentation to the Group Risk Policy Committee.
• Managed specific activities linked to the development of the bank’s profile within the agri sector including 11 customer seminars in April 2015, 60 farmer discussion group meetings in Dec ’15 / Jan ’16 and the bank’s annual presence at the National Ploughing Championships from 2012 to 2015.
• Met with IFA, ICMSA and the Department of Agriculture. Represented the bank at the Oireachtas sub-committee for Agriculture, National Dairy forum and accompanied the Chief Executive to bilateral meetings with the Minister for Agriculture.     

AccBank was a dedicated Food and Agri bank which provided financial services to its range of commercial and agri. customers. It withdrew from providing standard banking services in 2014 and focused on the management of its existing client base.

•  Jointly managed, motivated and coached the Agri Banking Teams in each ACCBank Business Centre, to grow and develop capabilities and to ensure the efficient operation of the teams.
  
• Ensured expertise was developed and maintained in line with the highest industry standards for Agri Graduates by the provision of ongoing continuous professional development for staff including classroom and farm based agri training workshops.
• Advised on agri credit risk management issues (including changes to agri policy) within the Business Banking Network.
• Promoted & fostered a close working relationship with Food & Agri Advisors and Specialists within the Rabobank Group, which included the provision of Irish sectoral updates to the International Rabobank Food & Agri Research team.
• Acted as the bank’s first point of contact for the main farm organisations and agri stakeholders, eg. IFA, ICMSA, Teagasc, I.C.O.S., etc. including instances when the farm organisations made specific representations to the bank on their members behalf. 

• Sourced and recruited new agribusiness customers to AccBank through proactive business development, i.e. completed > 200 proactive business development calls per annum to potential new bank customers.
• Visited potential and existing customers on farm for credit assessment and proposal.
• Analysed financial information (completed accounts extracts and financial ratios) where available and compared individual performance in line with the bank’s own standard net margins.
• Approved loan credit within own discretion (€500k) and recommended larger cases to underwriting for approval. Was one of only 2 managers granted this level of personal discretion.
• Referred suitable customers to the Wealth Management and Asset Finance Representatives of the bank to meet fee income targets of c. €50,000 per year.
• Completed staff training on loan application process, identifying target market customers and on achieving lending targets, i.e. hosted one capability workshop per quarter.
• Maintained the profile of Accbank within the business unit catchment area through contact with the farm organisations and Teagasc. Attended local information meetings as necessary to promote the bank as a leading provider of farm finance and was the lead Bank Agri Manager on the EBI €100 awards which helped promote the economic breeding index when first introduced by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation.

The I.F.A. is the largest Irish farm organisation representing the interests of its 75,000 members through negotiations at local, national and European level.

• Responsible for generating income through collection of annual membership from farmers and levy collection through agribusiness. Grew the net membership of the Association within my region in each of the 3 years of my employment.
  
• Represented the interests of the association’s members through mediation with the Department of Agriculture, agribusiness, banks, etc. to resolve disputes arising over non payment of premiums, subsequent delays in payments to business, disease eradication issues, etc.
• Maintained the profile of the association through generation and placement of press releases in the local media, radio interviews, and numerous public meetings on varying relevant policy issues including the beef price protests in 2000.
• Provided a professional support service to the voluntary officers at local level by attending monthly executive and commodity committee meetings, and advising on policy issues including government schemes and regulations. 

The recognised benchmark qualification for those working in the financial services industry. Modules included Loans, Regulation, Pensions, Life Assurance, Investments and Financial Planning.  

Major subjects: accounting, financial management, law, enterprise and taxation

 Specialised in: animal science; particularly dairy husbandry, animal physiology, animal nutrition and communications.