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Wednesday 12 March 2008

Ian Kerr to be replaced by Bert Pijls

Ian Kerr, the chief executive of Egg since November 2006, has resigned after the internet bank was accused of unfairly withdrawing credit cards from thousands of responsible customers. Mr Kerr will be replaced by Bert Pijls, the country manager for Citigroup, Egg’s parent company in the Czech Republic.

Egg last month sent out an unexpected warning to 161,000 card users saying it would end their agreements in 35 days because they had a “higher than acceptable risk profile”. The cards were withdrawn on Thursday last week.

Egg has even blocked some borrowers with perfect credit histories from using their cards. Experts said the bank, which has 2.3 million card customers, was effectively penalising these borrowers for being good with their money because they were not profitable customers, and that other banks are likely to follow Egg’s lead.

Mr Kerr, the former HBOS retail banking head, was also the head of UK consumer banking for Citigroup, which bought Egg from insurer Prudential last May. George Awad, Citigroup’s consumer chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said he was disappointed to loose Mr Kerr, but respected his decision.

Mr Pijls will move to London this month from the Czech Republic where he turned the consumer franchise around with high double-digit year-on-year growth, according to Citigroup. (source: Timesonline) - Egg dumps millionaires

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