The bonus for 2024 was part of a total remuneration package of €353,000, which was up €11,000 on the €344,000 she received the previous year.
Ms Butler has since announced that she is leaving the organisation. Earlier this month Bank of Ireland said she is returning to the organisation as Head of Corporate and SME Banking, where she will lead a team of 200, serving the needs of 3,000 companies across the island of Ireland.
The accounts for SBCI, which was established following Ireland’s exit from the troika bailout programme to ensure that businesses could access funding, show that the chief executive’s remuneration included a salary of €250,000, annual taxable benefits of €24,000, and €41,000 in pension contributions. The €38,000 in performance-related pay was up €8,000 on the €30,000 bonus paid in 2023.
The report states that discretionary performance-related payments “are intended to reward exceptional performance” and SBCI made €192,000 of performance-related payments for 2024.
In the annual report, lapses in internal control attract the attention of the Comptroller and Auditor General, Seamus McCarthy, who acts as the external auditor for the agency.
He reports that a review of the operation of the 2012, 2015 and 2017 credit guarantee schemes identified errors that had occurred in the collection of premium payments from borrowers, which are payable directly to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.
SBCI acts as an administrator of the schemes on behalf of the Department. Prior to 2017, the schemes were operated by a third party.
Over the period 2012 to 2024, amounts due totalling €500,000 had not been collected from some borrowers, while €100,000 had been over-collected from other borrowers.
Mr McCarthy stated that SBCI estimates that premium payments totalling €300,000 may not be recoverable and the SBCI is engaging with the Department to agree a strategy in relation to the errors.
Under the heading of ‘Misapplication of scheme eligibility’, Mr McCarthy points out that the SBCI also administers the Ukraine credit guarantee scheme on behalf of the Department.
One of the eligibility criteria required borrowers to declare that their business costs had increased by a minimum of 10pc over the 2020 levels due to economic difficulties resulting from Russia’s invasion.
He said that a review carried out by SBCI of its operation of the Ukraine credit guarantee scheme identified 206 guaranteed loans totalling €12.6m – 4.4pc of the total value of loans guaranteed – where the borrowers had declared that their businesses were established after 2020, and therefore may not have met the stated cost-increase criterion.
He noted: “To date, claims to the value of €300,000 have been paid on guarantees on 11 of these loans.”