Barclays has announced that group finance director Chris Lucas is to retire from the bank.

Barclays said Lucas began discussing his retirements with new chief executive, Anthony Jenkins, before Christmas. The bank's general counsel, Mark Harding, is also leaving but both executives have said they will stay in post until their successors are found.

Lucas joined the board in April 2007 from PWC, where he used to be the Barclays auditor. He was previously employed at the bank as a global relationship partner between 1999 and 2004. According to the Guardian he has health problems which have not affected his ability to do his job but had a bearing on his decision to retire.

In July 2012, Barclays announced that Lucas was one of four members of staff currently under investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in relation to £7bn of funds raised in 2008, largely from Middle Eastern investors. The FSA is investigating whether all the fees were disclosed in two fundraisings in June and November that year which were designed to help the bank avoid a taxpayer bailout during the financial crisis.

Barclays said Lucas' departure was unrelated to the investigation. Jenkins said that both Lucas and Harding felt it was the 'right time for them, personally and professionally, to pass the baton on in their respective roles' and that 'their decision to retire was theirs alone.'

Lucas said: 'It has been my great pleasure and privilege to serve as group finance director of Barclays for nearly six years now. While it has undoubtedly been the most eventful period during which anyone could have occupied a role such as mine, I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge'.