Banker Sean FitzPatrick is facing the prospect of having to make monthly payments from his €533,000 (£480,300) annual pension to Anglo Irish Bank as it seeks to recover the €70.4m (£63.9m) he owes in unpaid director's loans.

Sources close to Mr FitzPatrick have said that he is already preparing himself for the possibility that the newly nationalised bank will look for an instalment order through the courts, compelling him to make regular repayments from the €13.5m (£12.2m) pension pot he walked away with upon his retirement in December 2008.

While an Anglo spokeswoman said last night it would be “inappropriate to comment” on the matter, the imposition of such an order against Mr FitzPatrick would certainly be in keeping with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan's statement last Thursday that Anglo's new management team would pursue the recovery of its former directors' loan “to the ends of the earth”.

Mr Lenihan made the remark following the lodgement by Anglo Irish Bank earlier that day of a summary summons for judgment of the €70.4m (£63.9m) against Mr FitzPatrick in the High Court's Central Office.

It is considered highly unlikely that the bank will recoup anything approaching this amount from the former banker through the seizure or enforced sale of his assets.