Cigna CFO Thomas McCarthy to retire

(Reuters) - Cigna Corp (CI.N) said Chief Financial Officer Thomas McCarthy will retire this summer, a week after the health insurer's $54 billion (43 billion pound)deal to be acquired by Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) was blocked by the U.S. Justice Department.

Eric Palmer, who is currently chief financial officer of the company's global health, Cigna-HealthSpring, employer-based health care, group and supplemental insurance businesses, will succeed McCarthy, the company said on Thursday.

The company said Palmer will immediately become its deputy chief financial officer.

Cigna, which also reaffirmed its forecast for 2017 adjusted income from operations, promoted three other executives to its enterprise leadership team.

Michael Triplet, Alan Muney and Christopher Hocevar will join the team immediately, the company said.

Last week, Anthem won a temporary restraining order that blocked smaller rival Cigna from officially terminating their proposed merger.

Cigna had notified Anthem that it had ended the deal and filed a lawsuit in Delaware, seeking legal sanction for its decision to end the deal and $13 billion in damages.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)