The resignation of Sir António Horta-Osório as chairman of Credit Suisse has given City conspiracy theorists a bit of a field day.
Surely the board would have stood by him over a couple of breaches of Covid quarantine rules, unless they wanted an excuse to kick him out? Perhaps he has lost the board’s confidence following the investor disappointment at the recent strategic review?
Do the other directors want a change of direction? Is chief executive Thomas Gottstein fed up with the chairman throwing his weight around?
There may be an element of truth in some of this. But there’s no need to look for any other explanation for his departure than one.
If reports are true that Horta-Osorio sought exemption from a Swiss 10-day quarantine and when it was turned down went ahead with a trip anyway, this would be a very serious matter for the chairman of any company. For a chairman brought in to restore the bank’s reputation after a string of disasters, promising a new culture of rigorous risk management and personal accountability, it surely made his position untenable. And it was clearly not an isolated incident.
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Does his ousting signal doubts on the board about the bank’s strategic direction? That might be odd since the entire board only recently signed up to the new plan, including new chairman Axel Lehmann, whose first public statement was a commitment to implement the new strategy.
There has been some grumbling in the media about Sir António’s allegedly imperious and very hands-on approach to the strategic review. But under Swiss law, the chairman takes the lead on strategy. And the other directors can hardly have been surprised at Sir António’s personal style, following his history at Santander and Lloyds.
His track record might also have been a warning about his personal judgment given the bad publicity generated for Lloyds by his extra-marital affair with a former aide to Tony Blair on a business trip to Singapore.
Sir António’s departure comes less than two years after Tidjane Thiam, another high-profile, high-octane figure, was ousted as Credit Suisse’s chief executive following a spying scandal. So it is hardly surprising that the board has opted for a very safe, Swiss option with Lehmann.
Still, there will doubtless be concerns among some of its non-Swiss investors, and employees, that with a Swiss chairman and chief executive, the bank may go from one extreme to the other, and that its string of disasters may be followed by a period of excessively conservative introspection.
There is certainly a striking contrast with Swiss rival UBS, which has just installed as its chairman Colm Kelleher, the highly respected former president of Morgan Stanley and a well-known figure in the City.
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There may be some disappointment among Credit Suisse’s London staff that the bank did not opt for another international banker such as Richard Meddings, the former Standard Chartered finance director, who is also on the Credit Suisse board. Last month, Meddings was appointed chairman of NHS England.
That said, apart from it representing another blow to the bank’s reputation, it is not obvious that this latest debacle has implications for Credit Suisse’s operations in London.
As for the big strategic moves that some investors would like to see, Sir António’s replacement by Lehmann will probably further reduce hopes of bold initiatives from Credit Suisse. On the other hand, if UBS or anyone else was looking to do some sort of deal with Credit Suisse, this might be a good time to strike.
To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email David Wighton
https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/breaking-covid-rules-made-antonio-horta-osorios-position-untenable-20220117
