Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press
A branch of Barclays in London. The British bank reported a return to profit in the first quarter.
LONDON – Christopher G. Lucas, the chief financial officer of Barclays, announced on Wednesday that he was leaving the bank earlier than expected for health reasons.
Mr. Lucas, 52, said in February that he planned to leave the bank, and Barclays appointed Tushar Morzaria, a JPMorgan Chase executive, to take over as chief financial officer. Mr. Lucas will now step down on Friday.
Mr. Morzaria will start his new role at Barclays on Oct. 15, and Peter Estlin, the bank’s financial controller, will be the acting chief financial officer in the interim, according to a statement from Barclays.
The senior executive change comes less than a month after Barclays announced it planned to raise £5.8 billion ($9 billion) from investors in a rights issuance of stock to increase its capital reserves.
British regulators have demanded that local financial firms hold more capital to protect against future shocks and improve their so-called leverage ratios, a measure of how much borrowed money a bank uses.
Mr. Lucas had been the only senior executive to retain his job after a $450 million settlement with American and British authorities last year related to the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. The bank’s former chief executive, Robert E. Diamond Jr., and chairman, Marcus Agius, both stepped down in the aftermath of the settlement.
“Whilst I had hoped to be able to continue working until early next year, it is now clear to me that with my health as it is this will no longer be possible,” Mr. Lucas said in a statement on Wednesday. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease four years ago.
Mr. Lucas is one of four former and current employees of the bank who are being investigated in connection with payments to Qatari investors as part of a rescue fund-raising deal Barclays made during in the 2008 financial crisis. His departure is not connected with the continuing investigations.
Last month, Barclays said it was contesting the undisclosed preliminary findings of the British investigation.
The departure of Mr. Lucas, who had held his post at Barclays throughout the financial crisis, is part of the changing of the guard at many of Britain’s largest financial institutions.
The bank’s chief executive, Antony P. Jenkins, took over last August. The head of the partly nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester, is stepping down later this year.