Merged Lloyds TSB and HBOS delays appointment of new IT director

Who will get the top IT job when Lloyds TSB and HBOS merge?

Lloyds TSB has announced the new executive management team that will be put in place when its proposed merger with HBOS is complete – but has delayed the appointment of a new IT director.

All the other key board appointments have been put in place but the role of director of IT and operations has been left vacant pending an announcement “in due course”. A spokesman for the financial services giant was unable to confirm when the appointment will be made.

Lloyds TSB’s current director of group IT is Darryl West, while Heather Jackson is the HBOS chief information officer, and both are likely to be vying for the top job in the merged organisation.

Jackson has been at HBOS since 2000, and runs a team that stood at 5,800 IT professionals worldwide before the bank’s restructuring announced in August as a result of the credit crisis.

West has been Lloyds TSB’s head of IT since 2006. Under his leadership, the bank has made extensive use of offshore outsourcing.

West instigated the offshore sourcing strategy after taking on the director of IT role, and has so far seen four platforms transferred overseas with a further six underway.

In May this year, the bank announced plans to move 450 IT jobs to India, with further areas of the IT division's 2,400-strong workforce expected to follow suit in future. Lloyds TSB is also two years into a five-year outsourcing deal with Xansa to run its human resources operations out of a centre in India.

In contrast, when Halifax and Bank of Scotland completed their merger in 2003, the firm scrapped 10-year, £700m outsourcing deal with IBM to bring its systems back in-house.