Chris Lucas, global head of banking and capital markets at PricewaterhouseCoopers, will leave the firm in Spring next year to become the new finance director at Barclays Bank.

He will replace its incumbent finance director Naguib Kheraj who has announced plans to step down in 2007.

Lucas, 46, was PwC's global relationship partner for Barclays from 1999 to 2004 which makes him ineligible to join the bank until the 2006 results have been signed off, under accounting regulations.

The news took the market by surprise with Kheraj expected to succeed John Varley as chief executive.

His decision to leave may have been linked to increasing regulatory burden on a finance director's role.