Lloyds boss to step down after decade at top
ONCE Britain’s best-paid banking boss, Antonio Horta-Osorio will give up his job at the end of June 2021, after a decade in charge.
He said: “It is of course with mixed emotions that I announce my intention to step down as chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group by June next year.
“Everyone at Lloyds has unified around our purpose of ‘Helping Britain Prosper’, and our customers and communities are seeing our commitment to that now, more than ever.”
It will give Lloyds directors a year to find the next candidate for what is one of the most prestigious jobs in British banking.
The bank will also hope that Mr Horta-Osorio will have helped Lloyds co-ordinate most of its response to the coronavirus crisis by then.
But his successor might be left with a tough job collecting the more than £8bn in Government-backed loans that the bank has given to help prop up British businesses through the crisis.
Lloyds is unlikely to face a bill from the loans – as the Government has promised to step in to pay back a majority of the cash if businesses cannot meet their debts.
However, bankers are worried about the PR disaster they could face if they send debt collectors after business-owners who – through no fault of their own – are struggling to pay bills.
Mr Horta-Osorio joined Lloyds in 2011 after having headed up Santander’s UK arm.
His time in charge has largely been characterised by dealing with problems he was left by his predecessors.
The bank’s bill for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) ended up costing it £21.9bn.
He also helped the Government unwind the stake it took in Lloyds to bail it out during the financial crisis.