ANTONIO Horta-Osorio, the Portuguese banker who led Lloyds Banking Group back to private ownership after its bail-out in the financial crisis, has abruptly quit his new role as chairman of Credit Suisse.
The banker resigned from the Swiss bank with immediate effect after it emerged that he breached Covid rules last year. Reuters reported in December that Mr Horta-Osorio, who left Lloyds following a decade in charge last year, broke quarantine rules by attending he Wimbledon tennis championships in London in July.
Credit Suisse said his departure followed an investigation commissioned by the board.
In a statement released by Credit Suisse this morning, he said: “I regret that a number of my personal actions have led to difficulties for the bank and compromised my ability to represent the bank internally and externally. I therefore believe that my resignation is in the interest of the bank and its stakeholders at this crucial time. I wish my colleagues at Credit Suisse every success for the future.”
Credit Suisse has appointed Axel P Lehmann as its new chairman with immediate effect.
Severin Schwan, vice-chairman and lead independent director of the board of Credit Suisse, said: “We respect António’s decision and owe him considerable thanks for his leadership in defining the new strategy, which we will continue to implement over the coming months and years. Axel Lehmann as the new chairman, with his extensive international and Swiss industry experience, is ideally suited to drive forward the strategic and cultural transformation of the bank. We wish Axel every success in his new role and António all the best for the future.”
Mr Horta-Osorio received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2021 for his services to the financial sector, as well as his voluntary work for mental healthcare and culture.
He had headed Santander's UK arm before taking over at Lloyds in early 2011 the bank was on its knees after its £20.3 billion taxpayer bail-out at the height of the financial crisis following an ill-fated rescue of rival HBOS.
The Lisbon-born 57-year-old, who has British citizenship, bowed out from Lloyds in April with a £2.1 billion first-quarter profits haul.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel