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Where does a bank in a mess look for top managerial talent? That beacon of UK banking, of course: Lloyds TSB.

It may come as a surprise to some of their retail banking customers, but Terri Dial has done such a fine job at Lloyds TSB that she’s reportedly been poached. By Citi no less.

The WSJ reports that as part of Vikram Pandit’s continued overhaul of Citi’s senior management, Dial will join the bank to take over the running of its US consumer business. The hiring will come as part of a broader reorganisation designed to split most of its units geographically, rather than by business line.

Rather like when she joined Lloyds in 2005, tempted out of semi-retirement by chief executive Eric Daniels after her departure from Wells Fargo in 2001, Dial will be charged with rejuvenating a sluggish and beleaguered consumer finance operation. The division, says the WSJ, is far smaller than those of its rivals and is suffering from swelling defaults as more customers fall behind on loan repayments.

Sounds familiar. The early part of Terri Dial’s tenure at Lloyds, analyst James Eden from Exane has noted, was spoilt by spiralling retail bad debts, while the apparent absence of a sparkling new strategy and negligible top line growth didn’t help either.