The pension funds of UK banks HBOS and Lloyds have appointed their first CIO to oversee assets worth more than £32 billion.
Lloyds acquired HBOS in 2008, but the two pension funds have since been run in two silos.
Richard Cooper, who previously ran a regional office for investment consultant Mercer, has taken over the new role, CIO has learned. His appointment is aimed at building efficiency between the two teams, which could entail bringing on extra internal staff.
Cooper resigned from Mercer in July last year and joined South Africa-based Momentum Global Investment Management to establish Momentum Investment Solutions & Consulting in the UK. The position is the first he has taken as an outsourced CIO.
At the time of his appointment, Momentum’s head of institutional business Nick Robert-Nicoud told CIO investment consulting was an “integral part” of the company’s business in South Africa and would be an area of growth for the UK.
The new appointment is to take a role senior to the existing heads of investments at the pension funds, and comes as CIO revealed Larissa Benbow, who ran assets at the HBOS pension, left the role this week.
The two banks’ investment teams will focus more intently on the day-to-day asset and portfolio management, leaving the pension trustee boards to concentrate on more strategic issues, CIO understands.
There is no current plan to merge the two asset pools—Lloyds £21 billion and HBOS £12 billion—but sources close to the pensions said the move was not inconceivable.
A spokesperson for Lloyds Banking Group declined to comment.
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