Portuguese Lloyds head to be Credit Suisse chairman

After 10 years at the helm of Lloyds, the Portuguese banker António Horta-Osório has been appointed the chairman of one of the largest and most important banks in the world – Credit Suisse.

It is the first time that Credit Suisse has chosen a non-Swiss citizen to lead the bank. With a long and illustrious career in international banking from Santander to Lloyds, Horta-Osório, with a charismatic charm and sensitive approach — he is a supporter of dealing with stress in the workplace after suffering its ill effects himself — can justifiably be seen as the José Mourinho of the banking world.
In July António Horta-Osório, 56, announced that he would quit his post at Lloyds Banking Group, completing a 10-year run in front of the UK’s largest commercial and retail high-street banking group.
The news was broken in a communiqué from Credit Suisse sent to the media in which Horta-Osório states that he is “very pleased to have been put forward as the Chairman of the Administrative Board of Credit Suisse.”
“I am very motivated to continue to develop the group’s very strong points in close cooperation with the board of directors and management team,” he said.
One of the first ‘hot potatoes’ he will have to handle is the fallout of the Swiss lender’s spying scandal.
Horta-Osório will replace current chairman Urs Rohner who promised to step down earlier this year after the bank ousted ex-chief executive Tidjane after the corporate espionage row.
The Portuguese banker will be charged with repairing Credit Suisse’s image after the scandal which sent shockwaves through the country’s secretive banking industry and is being investigated by Swiss regulators.
Horta-Osório will leave behind a separate scandal at Lloyds Banking Group, which is still dealing with a compensation programme linked to a £245m loan scam at the HBOS Reading branch that pre-dated his appointment in 2011.
Six people were jailed in 2017 over the scam.
Lloyds – which rescued HBOS from collapse and subsequently took a £20.3Bn state bailout in 2008 – is also awaiting the results of an an inquiry into issues including whether Lloyds tried to cover up the scandal.
Horta-Osório has been widely praised, however, for returning the bank to profit and private ownership during his tenure.
The Portuguese banker was the highest-paid chief executive of a UK bank, earning £4.7 million and is expected to take home around £3.9 million per annum at Credit Suisse.