Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays hire insiders for interim CMO roles

Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays UK have both chosen long-time company insiders for interim CMO roles.

Lloyds Banking Group has promoted its comms director Simon Watts as its new interim Chief Marketing Officer.

Simon started in the role in February. He has worked at Lloyds in various roles for 14 years, most recently in the position of Director of Operations and Operational Communications.

His tenure has also included various brand and marketing strategy roles.

Prior to this he worked at HBOS, until it was taken over by Lloyds Banking Group in 2009.

The appointment comes just over a year after the group set out a new strategy in January 2022, with the mission of “Helping Britain Prosper”. This weaves together various themes such as the cost of living and sustainability.

Although Lloyds Bank is the largest brand in its stable, the group owns a wide range of brands including Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows.

The group achieved net income of £18.0 billion in 2022, up 14% year on year.

Meanwhile, Barclays UK has chosen Inderjit Bassi as its interim CMO, also starting in February.

He comes from the Marketing Director role, which he held for two years.

His nearly 20-year career at Barclays has also included Marketing Director roles for various product lines and business units within the company.