Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

Lloyds Banking Group will wave goodbye to two of its boardroom members, finance director Tim Tookey and Scottish Widows' deputy chairman Lord Sandy Leitch.Tookey, who joined Lloyds in April 2006 and become a board member in 2008, will be joining insurance giant Resolution in February as chief financial officer of its UK Life Project (Friends Life Group)."We would all like to thank Tim for the valuable insight and experience he brought to the group during an important period in the group's development," said Lloyds' chief executive António Horta-Osório.Tookey said, "I am excited to be joining Friends as it works towards achieving Resolution's exit strategy objectives. I am looking forward to making a significant contribution to the business, as part of such a strong management team led by Andy Briggs [chief executive]."Meanwhile, Lloyds said that due to "increasing time pressure from [...] other business commitments", Leitch has decided to call it quits after more than six years."As chairman of one of our largest businesses, Scottish Widows Group, his background in insurance and finance and his association with Scotland have proved to be invaluable. I am delighted that Sandy has agreed to be an adviser to the board for 2012 on our insurance and Scottish activities," said Lloyds chairman Sir Win Bischoff.Leitch added, "It has been a privilege to serve as a Board member and since 2009 as deputy Chairman. These past years have witnessed incredible challenge and profound change in the banking industry generally and specifically for Lloyds Banking Group. My own view is that we have turned a corner and real progress is being made."Senior independent director Glen Moreno will take over Leitch's responsibilities as deputy chairman.Of interest, analysts at Citi have issued a note this morning in which they indicate that Mr.Tookey's departure is neither a surprise nor is it indicative of the credibility of the bank's financial targets, as some observers seem to be implying. As regards the first of those points Citi says that, "Mr Tookey's departure had been widely anticipated, as one of the few remaining directors from the Eric Daniels regime. We therefore doubt today's news will come as much of a surprise to the market." Regarding Lloyd's financial targets Citi adds that, "The FT seems to imply that one of the reasons for Mr Tookey's departure was his concerns surrounding the credibility of Lloyds' new financial targets. These comments seem somewhat odd when one considers that he will remain with the firm until early next year and has already stated that he has no disagreement over the strategy implemented by Mr Horta-Osorio."As of 10:52AM shares of Lloyd's are falling 5.7% to 33.76p in London trading.BC