That FBD are experiencing difficulties shouldn’t shock anyone. The insurance business has suffered terribly since the downturn, both in Ireland and globally.

Andrew Langford’s departure as CEO of FBD last Friday – skilfully timed for the Friday afternoon of a bank holiday weekend – is a sharp wake-up call to anyone who assumes the situation will resolve itself. Langford stepping down is being read as more a decent man doing the decent thing for the company. However, the challenges he leaves behind are significant. Eoin Lowry details these in this paper (18-19), as indeed he did last week.

With new regulations coming down the track, an insurance company must have enough liquid assets to cover its potential liabilities.

FBD owns three hotels in Ireland – Faithlegg and the Tower hotels in Waterford, and Castleknock Hotel in Dublin – as well as two in Spain. More precisely, since 2011 it co-owns them in a joint venture with the original co-op, now known as Farmer Business Developments (the plc is FBD Holdings). This joint venture cost the co-op €60m and was controversial at the time.

Some asked whether the co-op was being asked to be the bad bank for dud assets. In fairness, the hotels have been performing to expectations since, while a further hotel, in Dublin’s Temple Bar, has been offloaded.

Langford and the plc board wanted to move the leisure business entirely into the co-op to fix its liquidity issue – at a cost to the co-op of around €50m. When this didn’t happen last month, it may have been the last straw for the now-departed CEO.

Michael Berkery is chair of FBD Holdings, and has been since 1996, through the rise and fall of the company’s share price. Eddie Downey and Padraig Walshe are the only other farmers among the seven non-executive directors.

The co-op is a different matter. Its 17-strong board reads like a who’s who of the IFA through the decades, with former IFA president Padraig Walshe acting as chair, IFA general secretary Pat Smith, John Bryan, Diarmuid Lally, Barry Donnelly, James Kane and Kevin Kiersey all involved.

Glanbia vice-chair Pat Murphy is also there, as are former Macra presidents Joe Healy and TJ Maher.

The venerable Hugh Ryan (another former Macra president) and John McCullen represent the FBD Trust, which provides support to a wide range of worthy causes across the farming spectrum.

This group are as political as they come, but must now make some tough decisions.