Antonio’s wanton return

THE intricacies of ‘block chain’ trading and Swiss bank UBS’s ‘utility settlement coin’ will doubtless be stirring the loins of bankers as they do their final lap of the Med before returning to their desks next week.

But of more interest to Lloyds bank investors, taxpayers, customers and employees will be the ceremonial return to the office of chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio after a summer break during which it has been his extracurricular activities while on bank business that have been the centre of attention.

The Lloyds response to Horta-Osorio’s fling with a prominent educationalist has been feeble from the moment it was revealed.

The statement from the boss, on the day he returned to work, is not much better. There is no apology to his family, stakeholders or anyone else, simply ‘deeply regret’ about the damage inflicted on the bank’s reputation.

Horta-Osorio makes much of the fact that his personal life is a private matter. Maybe, but when the indiscretions took place when you are in a luxury hotel in Singapore on bank business it is a matter of public interest.

This is especially so when you head a bank which was bailed-out with £20.5bn of public money in 2008 and in which the taxpayer still holds 9pc.

There is no doubt that Horta-Osorio has done a decent job at Lloyds. Pity he shouldn’t in the light of the fact that the bank has huge shares of the mortgage, current account and savings market. Moreover, it has slashed costs by cutting the workforce by 50,000 people since the ill-fated merger with HBOS in 2008.

Good bank chief executives are hard to find and Horta-Osorio clearly is ranked highly with Italian bank Unicredit and Britain’s largest financial institution HSBC understood to have been interested in his services.

The fear that he might be driven from office is no reason, however, for the bank’s board to treat his missteps leniently. We are told by the bank that the chief executive’s expenses for the Singapore jolly have been examined scrupulously and found to be ‘fully compliant’ and only his business expenses were reclaimed.

What we have not been told is how the division was done (since business and pleasure were so intertwined) or whether the separation was made before or after behaviour which failed to reach the highest standards was revealed.

Indeed, there are broader questions which have still to be answered. Was this the first time that the chairman Lord Blackwell had to go through the delicate task of separating Horta-Osorio’s personal from business expenses? Are other employees of the bank offered the same kid-gloved treatment?

And was conducting an illicit affair while on bank duties a distraction from carrying out his commitments at the International Monetary Conference and to the bank?

Clearly, it would be unfair to draw parallels between the Lloyds chief’s behaviour and that of failed chief executives Fred Goodwin of RBS and Adam Applegarth of Northern Rock, who both conducted affairs while in office.

But the high pay and benefits which come with being part of an exclusive club of bank chieftains does appear to encourage a culture in the chief executive’s sprawling suite which is very different to that which directors seek to impose on employees.

Horta-Osorio weakly excuses himself by saying ‘mistakes will be made’ as if they are nothing to do with him. Of course they are and he has duty to immediately give up some or all of his fat bonuses.

Lord Blackwell and the bank board have a duty to publish details of any investigation that has been carried out and show precisely how Horta-Osorio’s expense claims were handled in Singapore, and before that. Investors, including the taxpayer, deserve no less.

Commercial break

THERE is no disputing that Sir Martin Sorrell is one of Britain’s most impressive business figures. Amid all the uncertainties facing the UK and the global economy, when advertising and marketing budgets are most vulnerable, WPP managed 4.3pc net sales growth in the first half of the year.

Sorrell’s pre-referendum forecast that Brexit would slow growth looks to have proven wrong and the group’s shares climbed a further 1.9pc making Sorrell, who owns 1.91pc of the stock, ever richer.

When writing about Sorrell it is hard not to forget his £70m pay packet and the one-third vote against it at this summer’s shareholders meeting. Sorrell may think it is deserved. But several of his fellow FTSE 100 chief executives think it outrageous, casting a dark shadow over all the good work that corporate Britain does for our prosperity.

It is hard to disagree.

Brighton tower

ANOTHER bit of Brexit brightness comes from Britain’s seaside towns, some of which recently have been condemned for their lack of educational achievement.

A survey by software company Epos Now reveals that the staycation is delivering a £1.4bn boom to UK plc. The poll taken in the period July 17 to August 17 found a 12.8pc sales hike among hospitality businesses.

Top of the pops, as it should be, is that queen of resorts, Brighton, where this writer was born and bred.

The 162-metre-high British Airways i360 Tower, with its views of the Normandy Coast and South Downs, is already paying its way.