By Matt Scuffham
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest customer-owned lender Nationwide
Roberts, who will become a non-executive director of Nationwide in September, is retiring from his role at Lloyds at the bank's annual meeting on May 14.
Nationwide, Britain's third biggest provider of mortgage and savings products, is seeking to challenge the dominance of Britain's five biggest banks, wooing customers disillusioned by scandals such as the mis-selling of loan insurance and the rigging of benchmark interest rates.
"It is an organisation with a strong and well-deserved reputation for doing the right thing for its members. This fits well with my personal values," Roberts said on Friday.
Roberts has held a number of senior positions in banking and finance and was seen by head-hunters as a candidate to become Lloyds chairman following the retirement of Win Bischoff, before Norman Blackwell was appointed to that role in December.
Roberts has been deputy chairman of Lloyds since 2012 and was chief executive officer for international retail and commercial banking at Barclays between 2004 and 2006. He also ran Austria's second biggest retail bank, BAWAG PSK Gruppe, between 2007 and 2009.
Roberts will succeed Geoffrey Howe, the former Railtrack chairman and managing partner of law firm Clifford Chance, who has been Nationwide chairman since July 2007.
(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Steve Slater and Elaine Hardcastle)