Bailed-out bank stands by Antonio Horta-Osorio over business trip trysts as pressure mounts on married boss to resign
LLOYDS Bank boss Antonio Horta-Osorio faced calls to resign today after The Sun revealed he enjoyed hotel trysts with his secret mistress after jetting to the Far East on company business.
The Portuguese chief executive of the bailed-out bank is clinging to his reputation after we revealed how he went on several dinner dates with Dr Wendy Piatt after the pair met up at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Singapore.
He met her there before the start of a global banking conference where he was due to speak.
Hotel bills handed to The Sun show the bank boss - who earned £11m in 2014 - spent nearly £4,000 at the hotel including for treatments at the luxury spa.
Lloyds today said there had been "no breach" of their expenses policy and said the affair was a "personal matter."
But today city experts said the scandal threatening to cost him his job was "extremely serious.";
Veteran analyst David Buik said: "This is reprehensible behaviour and his contract must be terminated.
"When you're in the public headlights, at the very top of a bank that has cost the taxpayer billions of pounds, your behaviour has to be completely and utterly exemplary.
"Lloyds has, since the bailout, behaved worse than any other bank in terms of its relationship with its customers, costing them £16bn in repayment of PPI. So this just throws fuel on the fire."
"Taxpayers have a right to expect a certain standard of behaviour from a bank which they partly own."
"Senior executives must be holier-than-thou because they are going to be constantly under scrutiny. If they don't like it, they shouldn't take the job."
A Lloyds spokesman said: "Our expenses policy is very clear: the Group will meet any legitimate business expenses incurred by our staff.
"Personal expenses will be met by the individual. In practice the individual executive will pay all expenses incurred – personal and business – and then reclaim the business expenses from the bank.
"In this case there is no breach of our policy and the personal expenses are paid for by Antonio.
"More broadly, this is a personal matter for António.
"Lloyds has been returned to financial health over the last five years under the leadership of Antonio, and is well-placed to continue supporting the UK economy and to help Britain prosper."
Horta-Osorio, 52, has been keen to portray himself as a whiter-than-white bank boss and family man.
He boasted of his determination to “lead by example” after being appointed CEO in 2011 and said he had taken the job because his wife Ana had told him to.
In 2013 he launched a “Code of Responsibility” for all Lloyds employees urging them to “do the right thing” and asking: “Have I understood the risks and implications of what I am doing?
“Would I be happy to tell my colleagues, family and friends about my actions?
“Am I leading by example?”
Lloyds - bailed out by the Government to the tune of £23.7bn - has been under huge pressure and last month announced 3,000 job cuts.
On Sunday they were seen posing for a string of flirty selfies before taking a boat ride around Marina Bay
Horta-Osorio showed no sign of being under strain as he and Dr Piatt arrived in Singapore.
She has been a director general of the Russell Group, which represents leading UK research universities, since 2007.
Portuguese chief Horta-Osorio, who is known as “The Special One” of the banking world, was due to attend the International Monetary Conference on behalf of Lloyds on Monday June 6.
The Sun understands Dr Piatt, 45, had told her bosses at the Russell Group that she was visiting Singapore as part of her work to build relationships with overseas universities.
Chief's guide to behaviour
LLOYDS boss Antonio Horta-Osorio expects only the very best behaviour from his 80,000 staff.
In 2013 he personally signed off a Code of Responsibility for all its employees. Guidelines included getting the staff member to ask themselves: “Would I be happy to tell my colleagues, family and friends about my actions?
“Would Lloyds Banking Group be comfortable if my actions were reported externally?”
It adds: “We expect all colleagues to live up to the Code.”
There is no suggestion she has wrongly claimed costs or expenses.
On the Friday, three days before the banking conference started, he checked in to the Mandarin Oriental under his own name and using his official Lloyds Bank address.
Sources said the couple spent a huge amount of time together either in Horta-Osorio’s suite overlooking Singapore’s Marina Bay or on day trips or eating together at top restaurants.
A copy of Horta-Osorio’s hotel room bill handed to The Sun by hotel staff shows he spent around £450 on room service and items from the mini-bar and £12 for on-demand movie as well as hotel restaurant and laundry expenses.
The pair had dinner together on the Friday before going back to his suite.
Dr Wendy was also seen spending time on Saturday in the hotel’s spa where all over body massages with aromotherapy treatments cost around £150 each.
A sum of £300 was charged to Horta-Osorio’s hotel room for treatments at the spa that day.
Horta-Osorio’s wife Ana runs her own spa in Lisbon, Portugal, and has written an online blog praising the virtues of “organic spas.”
On Sunday he and Dr Piatt seen posing for a string of flirty selfies in the sunshine before taking a boat ride around the Bay, dubbed Singapore’s millionaire playground.
A source said: “They appeared to be behaving like the sort of typical loved-up couple you’d see on holiday.
“There was definite chemistry between them.
“They were all smiles as they queued for a boat trip together and even though he is married he was seemingly unconcerned that they might be spotted together.”
On Monday, Dr Piatt checked into her own room booked for her at the Mandarin by the Russell Group.
Horta-Osorio represented Lloyds at a number of speeches and sessions at the banking conference and had dinner with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Lloyds recently switched its Asia HQ from Hong Kong to Singapore.
Meanwhile, Dr Piatt spent the week attended several meetings with university chiefs.
On Wednesday the pair enjoyed a final evening together enjoying a nightcap on the hotel roof-top bar before retiring to his room.
The couple then left and flew back separately to Heathrow the following day.
The Sun understands the couple first met when Horta-Osorio gave a speech at a Russell Group dinner hosted by Dr Piatt in 2012.
A senior source said: “It started off as a professional relationship but has clearly become something much more than that.
“It began with a few lunches and has presumably grown from there.
“Wendy is single and knows that he is married.”
Horta-Osorio has been married to Ana for 25 years and the couple have three grown-up children.
He was poached from Santander in 2011 to resurrect Lloyds in the wake of the credit crunch.
Horta-Osario’s image as a stable family man was cited as one of the reasons for his appointment.
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He has regularly spoken of the importance to him of his wife Ana and their children.
He praised Ana for urging him to seek help after he ended up in the Priory with stress-related insomnia after less than a year in charge of Lloyds.
He said: “I sought medical advice and went to see a specialist.
“He told me that in effect my battery was so run down that it was virtually on zero.
“I went to the Priory for a week just to rest.
“Then I went home and was immediately sleeping eight hours a day.
“By then I felt extremely well and was telling the chairman I wanted to come back to work.”
Horta-Osorio has been described as the “great white hope” of banking and has said: “I want - as I always do, by the way - to lead by example.”
He has hosted a number of charity dinners - including for Save the Children and Great Ormond Street hospital.
But in 2014 there was fury when it was revealed he was paid £11.5 million.
Last year he was paid £8.1m - a six per cent pay rise when Lloyds staff got just two per cent.
Former convent schoolgirl Dr Piatt, former deputy director of Mr Blair's Strategy Unit, lives in a £1 million central London flat.
She is a regular TV pundit criticising government education policy.
Banker among the most powerful on the planet
ANTONIO Horta-Osorio is one of the most powerful bankers in the world. Lloyds paid him £8.5million last year and £11.5million in 2014. But he defended the salary, saying: “I hope people will judge pay for performance.” Horta-Osorio, close to ex-Bank of England governor Mervyn King, was hailed as the “great white hope” of UK banking. And he addressed staff in Birmingham in 2013 with then Chancellor George Osborne. He said after his appointment to the top job at Lloyds in 2011: “I’m conscious of the vitally important role the group plays in the UK’s social and economic fabric.” But within eight months he was forced to stand down temporarily while he went into rehab for exhaustion apparently caused by insomnia. On his return, he vowed to “get taxpayers’ money back”. In 2013 he was awarded “best banker in the world” by Euromoney magazine and thanked his wife Ana for her support. The dad of three said: “I’m happy my wife and daughter are here. I’m immensely grateful to my family for their support through what has been at times a difficult journey.” In March 2014 he said he wanted Lloyds to be a more family-run bank, adding: “I want to lead this by example.” Lloyds has been beset by scandals. It was fined £226million in 2014 after becoming the first bank to be censured for rigging the Libor rate. Last year it was slapped with a record £117million fine for mishandling PPI complaints.