Chairman of the TSB named

Lloyds Banking Group has hired former investment banker and City watchdog adviser Will Samuel as chairman of its soon-to-float TSB Bank business.

He takes up the position immediately at the 631-branch network as taxpayer-backed Lloyds gears up to list TSB on the stock market in the middle of the year to appease European rules on state aid.

Mr Samuel is currently chairman at the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group and kitchen manufacturer Howden Joinery Group, but was also previously a director of investment bank Schroders and vice chairman of investment banking at Citigroup Europe.

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He has also acted as a senior adviser to the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Lloyds chairman Sir Win Bischoff said Mr Samuel was a “key hire and will be instrumental in building TSB’s independent future as a challenger to the other high street banks”.

Mr Samuel added: “The bank has an exciting future ahead as we move to independence and establish ourselves as the home of local banking.”

Lloyds confirmed on Thursday on unveiling its full-year results that it was on track to float TSB in the summer and said the plans were “progressing well”.

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Mr Samuel joins chief executive Paul Pester at the helm of TSB, which was launched as a standalone banking brand in September, marking a return to high streets after an 18-year absence.

It is being offloaded in line with EU rules following the £20.5bn bailout of Lloyds at the height of the financial crisis.

But TSB was originally due to be sold in an ill-fated deal to the embattled Co-operative Group, which fell through last April.