Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s second- largest bank, will find it “very difficult” to write a living will as proposed by Britain’s Financial Services Authority, according to Group Finance Director Chris Lucas.

Barclays took 20 to 30 years to build an “evolving structure of subsidiaries and branches,” Lucas told a conference in London today. Changing that “is severely complicated,” he added.

“To break it up into living will elements is going to be very difficult,” he said. “Nevertheless it is something we are going to have to do.”

Living wills would force banks to simplify their legal structures, FSA Chairman Adair Turner told the Financial Times yesterday. That could result in them paying more tax, he added. A living will details how to wind down a bank should it get into difficulty.

Lucas’s comments contrasted with those of Stuart Gulliver, investment banking head of HBSC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank. HSBC could be “broken up” by regulators if it were to run into financial difficulty because the bank’s national units separately hold capital in the countries where they operate, Gulliver told investors at the conference yesterday.

Abi Jones, a spokeswoman for the FSA, declined to respond to Lucas’s comments.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jon Menon in London at jmenon1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 4, 2009 06:15 EDT