Ross backs Bank of Ireland CEO ahead of probe-report

DUBLIN Feb 20 (Reuters) - One of Bank of Ireland's major shareholders, U.S. billionaire Wilbur Ross, threw his support behind the bank's Chief Executive Richie Boucher on Monday ahead of a possible investigation by the country's central bank.

Ross has sung Boucher's praises since buying a 9 percent stake in the bank alongside a number of other North American investors last year and he was quoted as saying that Boucher remained the right man for the job.

"We think he's the right person to be running the bank at this point in time. We also think it's important for the country to be looking forward rather than just looking backward," the Irish Times quoted Ross as saying at an Irish business event in Florida.

"There was plenty of blame to go around for all sorts of things that were done wrong, but right now should be a period of healing, a period of rehabilitation, a period of getting on with it."

Ireland's central bank has written to the CEOs of Bank of Ireland, Irish Life & Permanent and EBS Building Society warning them that they face a possible probe over their roles in the run-up to the country's banking crisis, sources said last month.

Ireland's central bank introduced a new regime for scrutinising bank boards in December last year, giving it the power to veto future senior appointments or fire existing senior bank staff.

An independent arbitrator, likely to be a retired judge or a senior lawyer, will first decide whether the bankers should face an investigation before a separate independent arbitrator leads any probe, which would likely take some months to conclude.

Ross, who bought shares in the bank at 10 euro cents each, was also quoted as saying that he saw the company's book value at closer to 26 cents a share and that its value would rise to 1.5 times book value in a couple of years when the loan portfolio and the economy have been cleaned up.