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LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc's financedirector Chris Lucas is to announce on Monday that he plans toretire, people familiar with the matter said, as the Britishbank struggles to put several scandals behind it.
Lucas, in his early fifties, has been finance director for atough six years that spanned the global financial crisis, butthe past nine months have been particularly difficult.
He is one of four current and former employees beinginvestigated by UK authorities regarding a capital injection byQatar in 2008.
The sources said his departure was not linked toinvestigations into Qatar. Barclays declined to comment.
He is also the only one of Barclays' executive directorsstill in his post after the bank was fined $450 million in Junefor rigging the benchmark Libor interest rate.
New chief executive Antony Jenkins is attempting to move onfrom the bank's troubles, which also include the mis-selling offinancial products, but that is proving a challenge.
The Financial Times reported on Friday that UK authoritiesare looking into allegations that Barclays lent Qatar Holdingmoney to invest as part of the rescue fundraising four yearsago.
UK rules forbid a public company from giving financialassistance in order to acquire its shares.
Barclays has appointed headhunters to search for areplacement for Lucas who will stay in his position until asuccessor is found, which could take up to a year, the twosources said.
He has had health problems and although that has notaffected his ability to do his job, it influenced his decisionto retire, one of the sources said.
He said Lucas told Jenkins and the board about his decisionjust before Christmas.
"It's a new era (and) he sees it as the right time to allowsomeone else to drive that new strategy," one said.
Chief Executive Bob Diamond, Chairman Marcus Agius and ChiefOperating Officer Jerry del Missier all left last year followingthe Libor scandal.
Lucas, who joined the Barclays board in April 2007 fromPricewaterhouseCoopers, was paid almost 4 million pounds for2011.
Jenkins will unveil plans to streamline and revive Barclayson Feb. 12 and has already said the bank will need to improveits culture and standards.
The CEO said on Friday he will not take a bonus for 2012,saying he should "bear an appropriate degree of accountability"for the difficult year the bank endured.
Jenkins and his chairman David Walker, are likely to begrilled on standards at the bank by UK lawmakers when theyappear before the UK banking inquiry on Tuesday.
