Lloyds Banking Group has recently made the announcement that Mr António Horta-Osório will be succeeding Eric Daniels as group chief executive for the personal and business bank account giant.
The new group chief executive is slated to join the corporation in the early months of 2011. He will officially begin performing his duties in his new role on March 1 of that year.
Mr Horta-Osório has served Santander UK his position as chief executive for the past four years. According to a statement issued by Lloyds in regards to the new appointment, Mr Horta-Osório was instrumental in leading the expansion of the Spain-based bank’s British market. This included integrating the Santander-acquired Alliance & Leicester, Abbey, and Bradford & Bingley financial services providers in the UK.
Industry experts are quick to point out the less-than-stellar reputation Santander UK currently possesses in the customer service realm, however. Additionally the Spanish banking group released a profits report recently that detailed a 9.8 decrease in comparison to last year as a result of its accommodating a new debt provision charge instituted by the Bank Of Spain.
The central bank’s newly instituted regulations have also led Santander to issue warnings that profit margins for the current calendar year will fall short of forecasts previously made by its financial analysts.
In the announcement regarding Mr Horta-Osório, Lloyds has said that it plans to give more detailed information regarding his appointment in the coming weeks. Lloyds, much like its fellow UK banking group RBS, is currently majority owned by the UK taxpayer, and many banking sector insiders have predicted that the new appointment is an effort by the banking giant to get out from underneath the thumb of government regulation; hopes are running high that Mr Horta-Osório will be able to provide leadership that is conducive to these goals.; however whether Lloyds will run into the same stumbling-blocks that Santander has in regards to customer service is still to be determined..