SCOTTISH Widows, the Edinburgh-based pensions and life insurance giant, has announced the departure of chief executive Toby Strauss.
Mr Strauss, who headed Scottish Widows and the general insurance business of owner Lloyds Banking Group, has stepped down after four years in the post.
He has been replaced by Antonio Lorenzo, Lloyds’ consumer finance director. Mr Lorenzo has been named interim group director for the group’s insurance and chief executive of Scottish Widows, and will continue with his responsibilities for the consumer finance division.
While the UK pension sector has come under huge pressure as a result of new freedoms brought in by Chancellor George Osborne, Lloyds insisted his departure was down to more practical factors.
Lloyds, which is pursuing a strategy to bring its insurance business more closely in line with the wider banking group, is preparing to invest heavily in the next three to five years of that process.
Lloyds’ group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said Mr Strauss, who is in his “mid-50s”, has “reached the stage in his career where he feels unable to commit to that period of time.”
A spokesman said Mr Strauss will remain with Scottish Widows while he completes a handover to Mr Lorenzo.
Mr Horta-Osorio said Mr Strauss had “helped to re-establish the Scottish Widows brand and deepened the insurance division’s relationship with the group.”
He said: “Antonio has played a key role in building the consumer finance division into a core growth area for the business. We see similar growth opportunities for the insurance division with a particular focus on building our digital propositions as well as continuing the integration of our insurance services with the group for the benefit of our customers.”
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