CREDIT Suisse chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio has quit following an internal probe into his personal conduct, including breaches of COVID-19 rules, raising questions over the embattled Swiss financial giant’s new strategy as it tries to recover from a string of scandals. His exit comes less than a year after he was hired to help the bank deal with the implosion of collapsed investment firm Archegos and the insolvency of British supply chain finance company Greenshill Capital, even as it was still reeling from the 2020 exit of CEO Tidjane Thiam over a spying scandal. Combined these triggered multi-billion dollar losses and sackings at Switzerland’s No.2 bank, and Horta-Osorio unveiled a new strategy in November to rein in its investment bankers and curb a freewheeling culture. However, the Portuguese banker’s personal conduct has recently come under scrutiny, after he breached COVID-19 quarantine rules twice in 2021. “I regret that a number of my personal actions have led to difficulties for the bank and compromised my ability to represent the bank internally and externally,” Horta-Osorio said in a statement issued by Credit Suisse yesterday. “I therefore believe that my resignation is in the interest of the bank and its stakeholders at this crucial time,” said Horta-Osorio, the former CEO of Lloyds. Credit Suisse said Horta-Osorio resigned following an investigation commissioned by the board and that board member Axel Lehmann had become its chairman with immediate effect. “It has been in the ‘damaged goods’ section for a while now. While Horta was responsible for the new strategy, his short tenure means that the revamp is likely to only be in the nascent stages,” said Justin Tang, head of Asian research at investment adviser United First Partners in Singapore. “The irony of it is that Horta was hired to fix the reputational damage to Credit Suisse and revamp its risk taking culture in the bank,” Tang added. In December, Reuters reported that a preliminary internal bank investigation had found that Horta-Osorio attended the Wimbledon tennis finals in London in July without following Britain’s quarantine rules. Horta-Osorio also broke COVID-19 rules on a visit to Switzerland in November by leaving the country during a 10-day quarantine period, the bank said in December. Public scrutiny of the actions of politicians and athletes has increased amid COVID-19 curbs as governments push to get their population vaccinated. (SD-Agencies) | 