Press Releases

Appointment of Banking Supervisor

22 Jul 98

The Commissioner at Gibraltar's Financial Services Commission, John Millner, has announced that he has appointed Neil Kennedy as the Banking Supervisor to replace Jean Cooper. Mr Kennedy will take up the two year appointment in mid-September. The role of the Banking Supervisor is to support the Commissioner of Banking with the authorization and supervision of credit institutions.

Mr. Kennedy is 51 and holds Bachelor of Arts (Economics) and Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science) (Hons) degrees from Trinity College Dublin. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and a Member of the Institute of Bankers in Ireland.

He joined the Central Bank of Ireland in 1977 and is currently Deputy Head of Securities and Exchanges Supervision. Previously, he spent ten years as a bank examiner, being a Senior Bank Examiner for the last five years. In 1987, he was granted two years leave of absence to join the banking supervision department of the UAE Central Bank. A recent area of involvement has been the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin where he has gained experience of a wide range of commercial activity.

Mr. Millner said: "Since she has been with us, Jean Cooper has made a major contribution to the work of the Commission. Maintaining the high standards of supervision we have built up over the last four years is important and I am confident that Neil Kennedy, with his wide experience, will do that professionally. I consider training of local staff to be a most important duty of the Commission and learning by working with experienced supervisors is an irreplaceable part of that training. I should like to think that, if all goes well, the process will lead to the Assistant Banking Supervisor becoming the Supervisor in due course".

Jean Cooper has been on secondment to the Financial Services Commission from the Bank of England since January 1995. She is returning to London to join the Financial Services Authority, into which the banking supervisory activities of the Bank of England have been transferred.