Lloyds appoints Paul Pester to manage branch sell-off

Lloyds Banking Group has promoted Paul Pester - the man who led the team that created Virgin Money - to take charge of the sale of Lloyds’ 600-branch sell off as well as part of its retail and mortgage banking market.

Mr Pester is to become the chief executive of “Project Verde”, which is the codename for the multi-branch disposal ordered by the European Commission in 2009. It has a deadline of November 2013 to complete the sale. As part of the sale timetable, Lloyds is expected to begin talks with a bidder this year.

The owner of the Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks, National Australia Bank, is considered to be the most logical contestant for new ownership. It is thought to be caught between the idea of bolting the Lloyds operations on to its own before selling the merged business or being cautious by not investing more cash in Britain.

If the sale process becomes too complicated or does not attract the right price, Lloyds may float the business instead.

The sale includes the TSB brand, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Lloyds TSB Scotland, a banking licence and its phone and internet business Intelligent Finance.

Paul Pester will also remain managing director of consumer banking and payments at Lloyds, non-executive director at Visa and at software company MicroFocus International. Formerly an Oxford physicist Pester was previously a management consultant at McKinsey.

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