Entrepreneur and publisher Michael Lafferty, founder and chairman of Lafferty Group and Retail Banking Institute, has died following a short illness.
He was born in 1950 into a large family in the townland of Kilvaloon near Ballaghaderreen.
Over a career spanning more than 50 years, Michael became a world authority on retail banking and payments.
After qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1972, he became a Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
In 1975 he joined the Financial Times, where he worked for six years as banking correspondent.
Seeing that the growing field of retail banking was not being covered well by the media, he created his own publishing business in 1981 to launch the Retail Banker International newsletter.
In the following years, the business grew and expanded globally, opening offices in New York, Dublin, Washington DC, and Singapore. His success was acknowledged at the highest levels in 1988 when he received The Queen's Award for Enterprise.
Michael’s dream to establish the headquarters of the business in his native country was realised in 2014 when he set up an office in Westport, Co Mayo, which is now home to Retail Banking Institute and Lafferty Group.
Michael lived in London.
His funeral arrangements are not yet available.
