I’m so sorry for my ‘af fair’, Lloyds boss tells staff
SCANDAL-HIT Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio admitted ‘mistakes will be made’ as he apologised to staff following an alleged affair on a business trip.
In a memo sent to 75,000 staff at the bank, which is partowned by the state, the married father-of-three yesterday said he regretted any embarrassment caused.
The 52-year-old was responding to revelations he had spent time in a Singapore hotel room with academic Dr Wendy Piatt, 45.
His memo said: ‘I deeply regret being the cause of so much adverse publicity and the damage that has been done to the group’s reputation. It has detracted from the great work which you do for our customers on a daily basis and from the major accomplishments of the past five years.’
The scandal had led some shareholders to question the future of Mr Horta-Osorio, who was paid £8.8million last year.
And questions still remain over his trip with Dr Piatt, who is directorgeneral of the prestigious Russell Group of universities.
He racked up a room bill of £3,276 during his stay at the five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel in June, with £550 spent in the spa.
Lloyds insists all personal costs were paid out of his pocket, and he was exonerated by an internal inquiry.
However, the bank remains under pressure to specify exactly what it paid for during his trip to the International Monetary Conference.
The Government still owns 9 per cent of Lloyds following its bailout at the height of the financial crisis. Mark Bentley, of Sharesoc, which represents small investors, said Lloyds should publish a full breakdown of costs it covered.
And he said the bank should come clean about whether Mr Horta-Osorio met Dr Piatt at other functions, and who paid if he did.
He said: ‘Were all expenses claimed wholly for business purposes?
‘If so we wouldn’t have a problem, but we would like to see a fuller statement on that.
‘It’s not just for the one occasion where we need that confirmed.’
Mr Horta-Osorio has been an outspoken critic of bad behaviour. At a 2012 dinner for business leaders, he said reputations ‘take years to build and can be destroyed overnight’.
The chief executive tried to address those concerns in yesterday’s memo, saying he would learn from the experience. He said: ‘I have been a strong advocate of expecting the highest professional standards from everyone at the bank, and that includes me.
‘I will continue to strive to meet those standards. Having the highest professional standards raises the bar against which we are judged and as I have always said we must recognise that mistakes will be made.
‘I don’t expect anyone to get everything right all the time. The important point being how we learn from those mistakes and the decisions and actions we take afterward.’
The Mail understands staff feel largely sympathetic towards their boss, although there could be a backlash the next time Lloyds seeks to penalise a worker for breaching its tough personal integrity policy.
This demands employees maintain ‘the highest reputational standards’ and they can be disciplined for serious breaches even when not at work.
Following Mr Horta-Osorio’s appointment as CEO of Lloyds Banking Group in 2011, HR assistant Stephanie Bon criticised his reported pay package on Facebook, and was later sacked.
She wrote: ‘LBG’s new CEO gets £4,000 an hour. I get £7. That’s fair.’
Miss Bon said she had been hauled into a meeting and asked why she had written the post.
At the time, the bank said the decision to let Miss Bon go ‘had absolutely nothing to do with Facebook’.
‘Stephanie was employed via an agency on a short-term seven-day rolling contract,’ it said.
‘Damage to the group’s reputation’