Former Attorney General Peter Sutherland was among one of seven directors ousted in a boardroom cull at Royal Bank of Scotland today. The group owns Ulster Bank here.
The seven non-executive directors will retire immediately, RBS said, just three days after Philip Hampton replaced Tom McKillop as chairman.
RBS's board has been criticised for allowing former chief executive Fred Goodwin to make too many acquisitions and pursue a risky strategy.
Britain's government has had to pump £20 billion into the bank which is set to report a 2008 loss of up to £28 billion, a record for a UK company.
The directors going in the dramatic clear-out include Sutherland, who is also chairman of oil major BP and Goldman Sachs International, and Bob Scott, the senior non-executive of RBS and chairman of publisher Yell.
Also going are Jim Currie, Bill Friedrich, Bud Koch, Janis Kong and former Treasury official Steve Robson.
RBS has pledged to name three new non-executive directors, to be appointed with the approval of UK Financial Investments, the body set up to oversee the government's near 70% stake in the lender.
