Antonio Horta-Osorio - Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Credit Suisse lent £2.3m to its former chairman Sir Antonio Horta-Osorio just months before he was ousted over a breach of Covid rules.

Sir Antonio has now repaid the sum, which was lent on terms similar to those offered to clients with a comparable credit standing, filings show.

During his eight month stint as chairman, Sir Antonio earned £3.1m.

During his final year as chief executive of Lloyds Bank, he took home £2.5m.

The 59-year-old stepped down as chairman of the beleaguered Swiss lender in January last year following an investigation that found he breached quarantine regulations when visiting London to watch the Wimbledon tennis finals.

It is understood that Sir Antonio took out the loan to pay for a property in Zurich after becoming chairman and paid it back in full on the subsequent sale of the house.

Besides the loan, Sir Antonio was paid £3.1m for his stint as chairman of Credit Suisse.

It comes as Credit Suisse fights to reassure investors after tapping the Swiss central bank for a $54bn (£45bn) lifeline last week.

In its annual report, Credit Suisse says: “All loans to board members are… substantially on the same terms, including interest rates and collateral, as those prevailing at the time for comparable transactions with other persons.

“The majority of loans outstanding to members of the board are mortgages or loans against securities. Such loans are made to Board members on the same terms available to third-party clients.”

Sir Antonio stood down in January 2022 following an internal investigation by Credit Suisse's legal team.

His departure was just one of a litany of embarrassments for the bank as it lurched from crisis to crisis over the last two years.

A decision on further action was then taken by the board's audit committee, chaired by the British banker Richard Meddings.

It was ruled that Sir Antonio breached Britain's Covid rules in July 2021 by flying to London to attend Wimbledon without spending ten days in quarantine.



It later emerged that he flouted Swiss rules when he flew to Switzerland on November 28. The rules required him to stay in quarantine but he flew out of the country again on December 1. Credit Suisse also examined trips Sir Antonio made on the bank's private jet, sources said.

On one trip he used the bank's private jet to visit his family in the Maldives after a business trip to Singapore. The investigation cleared him of any breaches with the company jet, adding that the plane was old and had to stop off somewhere to refuel.

The Portuguese native left Lloyds for Credit Suisse in 2021 after a decade in charge of one of Britain's biggest lenders, having steered the bank back into private hands after a £20bn bailout, one of the largest rescues during the 2008 financial crisis.

In 2016, Sir Antonio apologised to Lloyds' 75,000 staff for causing bad publicity after allegations he had an affair with a former aide to Tony Blair were aired in the Sun.

He earned about £56m during a decade running Lloyds.

At the time of his departure from Credit Suisse, Sir Antonio said: "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. I therefore believe my resignation is in the interest of the bank and its stakeholders at this time."

CORRECTION: this article has been amended to reflect that Sir Antonio has repaid the loan. The original article reported he received £5.4m in total. In fact that figure included the repaid loan. We are happy to correct the record.