RE: New CEO12 Aug 2021 12:21
Seany123
Lloyds Banking Group Plc’s incoming boss Charlie Nunn inherits one of Britain’s biggest jobs in finance next week, with its wealth offering and pandemic recovery at the top of his to-do list.
Nunn, who previously led wealth and personal banking at HSBC Holdings Plc, is joining days after Lloyds announced the acquisition of Embark, an online savings platform that it hopes will attract more retail customers to its wealth services. Then there’s a joint venture with investment manager Schroders Plc, which has funds of about 14.2 billion pounds ($19.8 billion) and ambitions for more “mass affluent” clients.
“This should be an important growth segment for Lloyds,” said John Cronin, an analyst at Goodbody. The Embark acquisition “appears to be a sensible use of capital,” he said. “It warms shareholders up for more activity in this domain and we see the new CEO pivot the business further in this direction.”
Nunn, 49, has been getting up to speed in recent weeks, familiarizing himself with parts of the business that might need changes. “He understands that a bank must be continually improving efficiency,” said David Herro of Harris Associates, who has held Lloyds shares for more than 10 years and has recently met Nunn. Herro said the new CEO should look to grow the wealth unit “if this can be done in a sensible and economic fashion.”
Lloyds declined to comment.
Antonio Horta-Osorio, who stepped down as Lloyds CEO at the end of April, became a household name over a decade-long tenure that started in the shadow of the financial crisis. He cut thousands of jobs and billions of pounds in costs, closed overseas units and restored the bank to profitability and full private ownership. Nunn has a fresh predicament to navigate: how to make Lloyds prosper in post-pandemic Britain.
Wealth Push
Lloyds has more than 17 million current account customers -- equivalent to one in every four Britons. The bank believes more of them should be getting its help on where to put their money, boosting its wealth and insurance arm that makes just over 9%The business had a difficult pandemic. Net income dropped 38% last year, while Schroders Personal Wealth clients pulled a net 200 million pounds even as Britain underwent a savings boom. The bank experienced “some delays” in growth plans set by former CEO Horta-Osorio and in February, it pushed back targets for becoming a top three player in U.K. wealth by two years to 2025. of net income, according to its half-year earnings.
With branches hamstrung by successive Covid-19 lockdowns, fewer potential clients were referred to the group’s in-house wealth advisers last year. Britain has since lifted most of its pandemic restrictions, and referrals have more than doubled since the second half of 2020, Lloyds said at last month’s earnings.
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