António Horta-Osório

His paternal grandfather is António de Sousa Horta Sarmento Osório, a lawyer, economist and politician, and his maternal grandfather is Carlos Cecílio Nunes Góis Mota, 29th president of the Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Sir António Mota de Sousa Horta-Osório (born 28 January 1964) is a Portuguese-British banker.

He was group chief executive officer (CEO) of Lloyds Banking Group (2011-2021), and chairman of Credit Suisse from April 2021 until 17 January 2022.

Horta-Osório joined Credit Suisse following a series of scandals at the bank.

He left the bank in January 2022 after alleged breaches of Covid quarantine rules while travelling in Europe.

António Mota de Sousa Horta-Osório was born in January 1964, in Lisbon, the eldest child of António Lino de Sousa Horta Osório, a lawyer and national table tennis champion, and Adélia Maria Mendonça Mota.

He has two sisters and one brother.

Horta-Osório graduated in Management and Business Administration from the Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon, in 1987.

In 1987 Horta-Osório joined Citibank in Portugal, where he became vice president and head of Capital Markets until 1990.

He was also a guest professor in the Superior Course of Banking Management at the Portuguese Bank Training Institute (IFB), from 1988 to 1994.

He received his MBA at INSEAD, in 1991, where he was awarded the Henry Ford II prize for the best student in that year.

In 1991 he joined Goldman Sachs, working in their corporate finance division, in New York City and London, from 1991 to 1993.

That year, he was invited by Emilio Botín and Ana Botín to join the Santander Group and set up Banco Santander de Negócios in Portugal (BSNP), of which he became CEO.

During this period, he also taught at the Catholic University of Portugal, where he was an assistant professor, and a guest professor from 1992–1996.

From 1995 to 2003, he was president of the Association of Alumni of INSEAD in Portugal.

In 1997, Horta-Osório moved to Brazil, where he initiated Santander’s retail activities in the country, purchasing two retail banks and merging them into Banco Santander Brasil, of which he became CEO (1997–1999) and chairman (1997–2000).

From December 1997, he also became the chairman of Banco Santander Portugal.

In 1998 he became a member of the INSEAD Portuguese Council, and from 2003 to 2007 he was the chairman.

With the 1999–2000 agreement between António Champalimaud, the Santander Group and the Caixa Geral de Depósitos, the Santander Group became the owner of Banco Totta & Açores and Crédito Predial Português, adding these to Banco Santander de Negócios and Banco Santander Portugal.

Following this, the Group changed its name to Banco Santander Totta.

In 2000, he became chief executive of Banco Santander Totta in Portugal.

He also became executive vice president of Banco Santander in Spain and a member of its management committee.

He attended an Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School in 2003.

He joined Abbey National as a non-executive director in November 2004.

In August 2006, he moved to the UK, and became CEO of Abbey and its successor Santander UK.

In 2006, he became chairman of Santander Totta in Portugal.

In 2008, he led the integration into the Santander Group of the British building societies Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester.

Horta-Osório was appointed as a non-executive director to the Court of the Bank of England in June 2009, relinquishing this position in February 2011, as he became CEO of Lloyds Banking Group on 1 March 2011.

Horta-Osorio is currently a non-executive director of EXOR N.V., Fundação Champalimaud and Sociedade Francisco Manuel dos Santos in Portugal, a member of the Board of Stichting INPAR.

He also serves on the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) President’s Committee and is Chairman of the Wallace Collection.

In January 2011 he joined Lloyds Banking Group as an executive director, becoming CEO on 1 March 2011.

In November 2011, he went on temporary leave due to exhaustion, which the Evening Standard called the most high-profile sick leave in the City.

The following month, he announced that he was ready to return to work.

In January 2012, he cited the impact that his leave of absence had on the company as the reason that he did not wish to receive a bonus for 2011, and said "As chief executive, I believe my bonus entitlement should reflect the performance of the group".

Under his leadership, the bank's financial performance was turned around.

It returned to profitability, slimming down to focus on domestic lending and to meet tougher regulatory requirements on the amount of capital it holds.

Lloyds started down the road to full private ownership, with the Government reducing its stake in September 2013 and March 2014 respectively.

In 2014, Horta-Osório saw his pay increase more than 50 percent to £11.5m as Lloyds returned to profit.

Lloyds completed its return to private ownership in May 2017 with c.£900m above the original stake being repaid to the government.

In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, Horta-Osório sought to allay fears the bank would shift operations abroad as other UK banks had announced.