Alliance & Leicester's managing director Mr Peter McNamara is to leave the group after a major management shake-up.
The group said Mr McNamara had left by "mutual consent" after just 15 months in the role. His post will cease to exist under a new structure.
Mr McNamara, who joined the group from Lloyds TSB, could now get up to £570,000 sterling in compensation from a contract that entitles him to up to 18 months salary if his employment is cut short.
A spokesman for the group said it had decided to rethink the roles of its executive directors to enable it to focus better on its strategy of encouraging existing customers to buy more financial products.
Alliance recently announced it was cutting 700 jobs through voluntary redundancies in a bid to cut costs.
The bank hopes to have reduced costs by £100 million by the end of 2003 and anticipates there being up to 1,500 voluntary redundancies between 2000 and 2003.
The group said its trading since the end of June had not been affected by uncertainty about the UK and world economies and mortgage volumes had continued to grow strongly.
But it added that in the current economic climate it would adopt a more conservative approach to growing the business.
Under the bank's new structure Mr John Windeler will remain as executive chairman with overall responsibility for the group's strategy.
Mr Richard Pym, formerly group finance director, has been appointed as managing director for retail banking and will take over operational responsibility for personal customers.
PA