City profiles

António Horta-osório Lloyds’s Portuguese boss is in hot water after “allegedly having a fling” with a former adviser to Tony Blair, says the Daily Mail. António Horta-osório was spotted enjoying days out with Dr Wendy Piatt during a business trip to Singapore, and now “faces calls to resign”. There are questions about whether there was a misuse of business expenses as he entertained Piatt, who has been director general of the Russell Group of universities since 2007. Horta-osório, who has been married for 25 years and has three children, was last year paid £8.5m, making him the highest-paid bank CEO in Britain.

The bank insists its chief has “broken no rules” in filing expenses, says The Times. Nonetheless, the allegations come at “a sensitive time for Lloyds” as it dismisses 3,000 more staff and prepares to close 200 branches. Horta-osório, who has run Lloyds for the past five years, is “regarded as one of the best bankers of his generation”. Yet he now stands accused of “hypocrisy”. Three years ago, he was “the driving force” behind a new code of conduct at the bank, which urged employees to act only in ways they would “be happy to tell colleagues, family and friends about”. There may, however, be more to these allegations than meets the eye. They follow “months of rumours in the City of a smear campaign against Mr Horta-osório”, based on information “leaked from his personal office”. The bank said there is “no formal investigation under way” into the potential leaks, but that it is keeping the situation “under review”.