Lloyds FD set to quit to join Friends Life: sources

LONDON: Lloyds finance director Tim Tookey is set to resign from the part-nationalised British bank in order to join insurer Friends Life, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday.

Lloyds and Friends Life, which is a unit of insurance vehicle Resolution, both declined to comment on the situation.

One source said Resolution was keen to hire Tookey as the company continues on a programme of restructuring work.

"There's a lot of restructuring work to do at Friends, and there's possibly further acquisitions to make," said the source, who declined to be identified.

Another source said Tookey, having helped steer Lloyds through the maelstrom of the credit crisis, felt he wanted a new challenge in his career.

The source added that Tookey was expected to remain at Lloyds for another six months.

Tookey already has experience of working in the insurance industry, having been a finance director at British insurer Prudential before joining Lloyds in 2006.

Tookey's expected departure follows that of former Lloyds retail banking head Helen Weir and insurance head Archie Kane, in the wake of the arrival earlier this year of new group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.

Resolution was set up a few years ago by entrepreneur Clive Cowdery to acquire and restructure struggling life insurance companies, and in August it said that its half-year profit had more than doubled to 390 million pounds ($616 million).

Lloyds shares closed down 0.3 percent at 35.81 pence on Friday.

The British government has a stake of roughly 41 percent in Lloyds and holds 83 percent of rival Royal Bank of Scotland after it had to bail out both banks with taxpayers' money during the credit crisis.

European regulators have ordered both banks to sell off assets as payback for their state bail-outs, and Lloyds is currently in the process of looking to sell some 630 retail bank branches.

Copyright Reuters, 2011