Lloyds chief financial officer to step down

George joined the group in 2012 and played a key role in helping the bank return to full private ownership in 2017 as well as overseeing the Group's acquisition of MBNA.

The announcement comes as Lloyds releases its figures for the first nine months of 2018, reporting an 18% rise in statutory profit after tax to £3.7bn, a 5% increase in underlying profit, and a 3% rise in net income to £13.4bn

António Horta-Osório, group chief executive, said: "George has been a crucial member of the team that has helped turn Lloyds around and position it for future success. He has a great mind and great judgement and, in short, has been an outstanding CFO.

"We are grateful that he has timed his retirement so that he will be with us until after next year's interim results and we will be sorry to see him go.

"In the first nine months of 2018 we have delivered a strong and sustainable financial performance, with increased profits and returns and continued strong capital build.

"We have also made a strong start to our 2018 to 2020 strategic plan. We have been implementing the initiatives which we announced in February as part of our ambitious strategy to transform the Group for success in a digital world. As planned, our strategic investment has accelerated and is already delivering real benefits to customers whilst operating costs continue to reduce.

"We have also just announced a wealth management joint venture initiative with Schroders, demonstrating the Group's focus on enhancing our customer proposition and growing our financial planning and retirement businesses.

"We remain on track to deliver the improved financial targets for 2018 that we announced in August, as well as all of our longer term guidance."