Lloyds Banking Group has made Tom Spender its new general counsel (GC) for its litigation, regulatory and competition group after his departure from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Spender joins as GC for litigation after he quit the FCA in February, along with the regulator’s head of market monitoring Patrick Spens, who moved to PwC.
While at the FCA, Spender was director of retail and regulatory investigations and part of the senior leadership team, having joined the regulator in 2002. He also served as head of FCA supervision, monitoring the conduct of three of UK’s largest banks.
Spender began his career as a litigator in Australia with (then) Allens Arthur Robinson, before moving to London to join Allen & Overy.
Lloyds group GC Kate Cheetham said: ‘I am delighted to welcome Tom on board – I know he will play a key role in how we support the group in its journey to continue to be the best bank for customers.’
This year, Lloyds has seen a series of shake ups in its in-house legal team. The bank recently lost its GC for group legal Hugh Pugsley and head of legal wealth management for international retail John Pitt, with the pair leaving for HSBC. In March this year, the bank also appointed a head of legal for ringfencing, with former Berwin Leighton Paisner corporate partner Frances McLeman taking up the role.
In June, Legal Business reported Lloyds was pushing an incentive scheme to its lawyers to secure new recruits for senior legal roles, with general counsel for commercial banking Joanna Carver circulating a memo to the bank’s 300-strong legal team asking for help in filling up to 15 management roles with new recruits, promising referral fees as a reward.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk