Lloyds names HSBC’S Charlie Nunn as chief executive

LONDON: Britain’s biggest domestic lender Lloyds Banking Group said it had picked Charlie Nunn, currently head of wealth and personal banking at rival HSBC, to become its next chief executive.

Nunn will replace long-standing Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-osorio who said in July he would step down next year after a decade at the helm.

Nunn joins at a critical time and will be charged with steering Lloyds, seen as a bellwether for the wider economy, through the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and an era of rock-bottom central bank interest rates.

Despite taking hefty provisions against potential loan losses this year, analysts say Lloyds, like its rivals, faces further pain as government support for jobs and businesses is withdrawn next year.

The bank’s shares are down 40% this year, although they have rallied a third since the start of November following news of breakthroughs in the race to find a vaccine against Covid-19.

Nunn, a former Mckinsey consultant who joined HSBC in 2011, was only appointed to his current role earlier this year following a management reshuffle by CEO Noel Quinn.

Nunn will receive a basic annual salary of £1.125mil (Us$1.5mil) and a fixed share award of £1.05mil, in addition to flexible benefit funding of 4% of basic salary, Lloyds said in a statement.

His pension has been set at 15% of his salary.

Changes to Nunn’s salary and maximum long-term share plan mean his maximum pay will be around 20% lower than that of Horta-Osorio. Incoming chairman Robin Budenberg has also asked for his pay package to be cut by 20%, Lloyds said.

HSBC said in a separate memo that Nuno Matos, currently head of its non-ringfenced British arm, is to replace Nunn.