Lloyds Banking Group is losing two of its most senior retail bankers and restructuring the business, according to an internal memo and people familiar with the situation.

An internal memo sent to staff said that Stephen Noakes, transformation director and a former mortgage director, will leave the lender after 15 years, having “decided that now is the right time to make his next move and to take on external opportunities”.

Vim Maru, group director of the retail bank, left on Friday, according to people familiar with the situation. His departure, which was announced earlier this year, will lead to his role being split up as part of the restructuring.

Elyn Corfield, managing director of consumer finance, will become group director for business and commercial banking and will join the executive committee, the memo stated.

The memo came after chief executive Charlie Nunn said that £4bn of investment would be made over five years as part of the new strategy, which the bank predicts will add revenues of £1.5bn by 2026.

The plan is to diversify Lloyds’ income away from mortgages, where it has the largest market share, to business less dependent on interest rates, such as insurance and wealth management, while digitising operations to cut costs and improve returns.

Lloyds sent the notice to staff with details of the reorganisation, which comes into force on Friday. Nunn, who joined the bank last August, first announced an overview of the plan in February to focus on areas where the bank can “grow”.

As part of the restructuring, a “customer affordability” team had been created, with the aim of more effectively assessing customers using digital services, the memo stated. The move brings together expertise across products into one team.

The bank has also formed an “embedded finance” division, focused on payment options for customers shopping online. The note said: “We will find growth in new areas of payments, working with retailers more closely than ever before.”

It added the team would “understand and navigate the fast-paced payment landscape as new competitors arrive and customers expect a level of ease and embedded payment options that will continue to change at pace”.

However, a few appointments have yet to be made in the new structure, including someone to oversee the credit card business, where it has the second-largest market share and includes the MBNA brand.

“Whenever you get changes in management, it does create some uncertainty,” said Gary Greenwood, an analyst at Shore Capital.

Lloyds said: “The business unit structures have been designed with our future priorities at the forefront of our mind to help us to achieve our purpose of Helping Britain Prosper. As part of this, we have considered how we want to work in the future and where we want to grow, focus and change our business.”



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