Lloyds appoints institutional insurance head
Lloyds Commercial Banking has appointed Gareth Braithwaite to head up the institutional insurance team within its financial institutions division.
Braithwaite will report to Bill Cooper, managing director, global head of insurance, and will be based in London.
He will focus on the co-ordination and development of the bank’s relationships with the large UK and European insurers.
He joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), where he was most recently its head of European insurance corporate banking, focusing on developing its insurance solutions capability in both the UK and Europe.
Before BAML, Braithwaite was at RBS from 2005 to 2010, as its global head of insurance and latterly as Co-Head of its EMEA financial institutions group. Braithwaite spent the first 17 years of his career at Barclays, the last seven of which were heading up its European insurance origination team.
Cooper said: “This is an exciting time for both the global insurance team and Lloyds Bank’s financial institutions business more broadly. Gareth’s extensive insurance sector expertise and his experience of developing relationships with insurers, across both the UK and Europe, will further enhance our capabilities in this sector and add to the stature of our team.
“His appointment comes at a time of unprecedented change for the global insurance sector, which is facing new regulation, the challenges of enduring low interest rates and technological change on buying patterns of consumers. Against this backdrop, insurers are focusing their strategic partnerships with those firms who can really understand their businesses and who are able to provide tailor-made solutions to their requirements.”
Braithwaite added: “The insurance team at Lloyds Bank has an excellent reputation within the FI sector and I am excited about the prospects for the team during what continues to be a period of great change for the sector. I am looking forward to helping the team build their capabilities to support the commercial banking division and the wider group.”
