Former Permanent TSB executive Niall O'Grady has been appointed as the new managing director of 123.ie, the online insurer in Ireland and a subsidiary of British company RSA.

In August, Mr O’Grady announced that he was leaving PTSB after 17 years with the State-controlled bank. He will take up his new role in mid-January.

Mr O’Grady (51) held a number of different roles in his time with PTSB, including as marketing director, as head of intermediaries and the call centre, while he also had responsibility for digital and public relations. He was latterly director of PTSB’s product management unit.

123.ie was founded in 2000 and acquired by RSA a decade later. It offers a range of insurance products and has more than 300,000 customers. The insurer made a pre-tax profit of €9.8 million on turnover of €31.2 million in 2015 and employed an average 246 staff last year.