Scottish Widows boss to step down

Toby Strauss, the chief executive of Edinburgh-based pensions and life insurance giant Scottish Widows is to step down after four years in the post.

Mr Strauss, who headed Scottish Widows and the general insurance business of owner Lloyds Banking Group is to be replaced by Antonio Lorenzo, Lloyds’ consumer finance director.

News of the reshuffle prompted speculation that Lloyds may reconsider whether to sell Scottish Widows, which it bought in 1999 for £7 billion.

A sale was regarded as a likely option in the wake of the financial crisis but was not pursued by Lloyds because it would not have helped the bank’s capital position. The bank has recently integrated Scottish Widows to achieve savings, making it highly unlikely that it will now be sold, sources said.

Mr Lorenzo has been named interim group director for the firm’s insurance business and chief executive of Scottish Widows, and will continue with his responsibilities for the consumer finance division.

While the pension industry has come under huge pressure as a result of new freedoms brought in by Chancellor George Osborne, Lloyds insisted Mr Strauss’s departure was a result of his own personal decision.

Lloyds, which is pursuing a strategy to bring its insurance business more closely in line with the wider banking group, is preparing to invest heavily during the next three to five years of that process.

Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said Mr Strauss, in his mid-50s, has “reached the stage in his career where he feels unable to commit to that period of time”. Mr Strauss will remain with Scottish Widows while he completes a handover to Mr Lorenzo.

Mr Horta-Osorio said Mr Strauss had “helped to reest ablish the Scottish Widows brand and deepened the insurance division’s relationship with the group”.

He added: “Antonio has played a key role in building the consumer finance division into a core growth area for the business. We see similar growth opportunities for the insurance division.”