Chris Lucas, Barclays finance director since 2007, is to step down, the latest sign of the pressure piling on the British bank’s top management after scandals and a probe into the lender’s capital-raising efforts during the financial crisis.

Barclays is poised to announce Mr Lucas’s intention to retire as early as today, according to a source who requested anonymity. Mr Lucas (52) will remain in his post until the lender finds a replacement, which could take up to a year.

Clean break

Mr Lucas’s successor is likely to come from outside the bank, in a move signalling a clean break with the past.

In 2011 Mr Lucas received a £3.933 million remuneration package, up from £3.896 million the year before, according to Barclays’s annual report. It included an £800,000 salary, a £1.8 million deferred bonus and £1.33 million in long-term incentive awards. This compared with £6.3 million in total for Bob Diamond, the bank’s former chief executive.

Mr Lucas has been weighing up his departure for at least two years on health grounds, but was forced to delay his move when Mr Diamond resigned last year after the bank admitted its role in manipulating the London interbank offered rate. Barclays has agreed to pay a £290 million fine to settle the Libor investigation.

FSA investigation

While not directly connected, Mr Lucas’s decision to retire coincides with an investigation by the UK’s Financial Services Authority and the Serious Fraud Office into whether Barclays provided a loan to Qatar to fund the bank’s cash call in 2008. The departure of another member of Barclays’s pre-crisis old guard should help Antony Jenkins, who took over as chief executive last year, to improve the bank’s image.– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013