Tate’s departure marks end of the Eric Daniels ‘old guard’ at Lloyds

THE last of the old guard who worked for former Lloyds’ boss Eric Daniels is quitting this month as part of a wider management shake‑up unveiled yesterday to ease pressures on his successor at the helm, Antonio Horta-Osorio.

An internal and external search has been launched to find a successor to Truett Tate, who heads the bank’s wholesale division, which handles lending to bigger businesses.

Analysts said the internal frontrunner for the post is Andrew Gezcy, managing director of Lloyds’ wholesale banking and markets arm, who will report to Horta‑Osorio in the meantime.

Horta‑Osorio, who took temporary sick leave with exhaustion late last year, said: “I would like to thank Truett for his contribution and commitment to the group over the last eight years.

“He has played an important role with the management team in helping to steer the group through a challenging period and we wish him well for the future.”

Tate’s retirement is a symbolic milestone for the partly taxpayer-owned bank, with insurance boss Archie Kane and retail head Helen Weir already having departed, and finance director and acting chief executive Tim Tookey to join insurer Friends Provident this month.

Keith Bowman, banking analyst at Hargreaves Lansdowne, said: “Lloyds is thought of mainly as a retail bank and sometimes the wholesaling arm can be underestimated as a result. But it’s not an insignificant part of the bank, and the City will welcome it when the appointment of a new head is announced.”

The wholesale division contributed £2.74 billion, or 26 per cent of Lloyds’ total income in the half-year to June 2011, the last period for which figures are available before the bank’s annual earnings are announced on 24 February.

Other changes to the group’s management structure unveiled yesterday are designed to ease the daily operational pressures on Horta‑Osorio, who returned to work early last month.

It will involve ten executives reporting to the Portuguese boss – down from 14 – through the five main business lines, as well as the heads of support functions including risk, finance and corporate affairs.

Personnel, legal and secretariat and group audit will report in future to a newly created position of group corporate functions director, who is yet to be recruited.

The changes see two of Horta‑Osorio’s former colleagues at Santander UK take bigger roles.

Alison Brittain, head of the Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland retail business, will take over the same function with Halifax, while Antonio Lorenzo adds asset finance to his current responsibility for group strategy and the wealth and international division. Lloyds said yesterday the overall changes would provide the “optimum structure” to implement its strategy.

l LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds, has appointed Mark Kerr as a director in Aberdeen to lead the firm’s investment activity in the oil and gas sector.

Kerr, who spent 15 years at 3i, latterly as co-head of its oil, gas and power team, said: “LDC recognises the significant market opportunity in the oil and gas sector and my aim over the next couple of years will be to establish LDC as a significant player in this market in Scotland.”