France’s Banque Populaire Caisse d’Epargne (BPCE) has invited António Horta Osório — the Portuguese banker who led both Lloyds Banking Group and Credit Suisse — to join the board of Novo Banco as non-executive vice-chairman, in a move that signals the new owner’s ambition to overhaul the Portuguese lender’s governance structure.
The invitation brings Horta Osório back to Portuguese banking through French hands, having previously steered institutions tied to Spanish capital as well as major British lenders. His proposed role would be non-executive in nature — carrying oversight and strategic guidance responsibilities rather than day-to-day management functions.
The approach forms part of a broader governance overhaul that BPCE intends to implement at Novo Banco following the completion of its acquisition of the bank in April. The French group aims to dismantle the governance model put in place during the tenure of US private equity firm Lone Star, which controlled Novo Banco from 2017 to 2026.
Horta Osório’s appointment requires regulatory clearance from the Bank of Portugal (Banco de Portugal), which must conduct a fit-and-proper assessment of the candidates put forward by BPCE for seats on Novo Banco’s board. Although he currently holds several non-executive and advisory positions, that alone does not constitute a disqualifying factor. The regulator is expected to assess his availability, the compatibility of his various mandates and any potential conflicts of interest, and may request additional information or, if deemed necessary, require him to relinquish one or more of his existing roles.
According to reporting by Jornal Económico, confirmed by CNN Portugal, the invitation was extended directly by Nicolas Namias, president of BPCE, who is himself expected to serve as non-executive chairman of Novo Banco. Horta Osório would take the vice-chairman position beneath him. The role of chief executive officer will remain with Mark Bourke — a continuity that BPCE has publicly committed to, stating that ‘this process will have no impact on the continuity of Mark Bourke as executive director of Novo Banco.’ The full list of proposed new board members has already been submitted to the Bank of Portugal.
When contacted by the press, BPCE declined to confirm Horta Osório’s name directly but said it ‘is currently analysing different options for the evolution of Novo Banco’s governance model, aligning it more closely with best market practices in Portugal, in order to strengthen support for the institution’s strategic development.’ Horta Osório himself declined to comment when approached by Jornal Económico.
António Horta Osório is among the most internationally prominent Portuguese bankers of his generation. After leading Santander Totta in Portugal and Abbey National in the United Kingdom — both within the Spanish Santander group — he served as chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group between 2011 and 2021, steering one of Britain’s largest lenders through its post-2008 financial crisis restructuring.
In 2021, he took on the non-executive chairmanship of Credit Suisse, a mandate that proved short-lived and controversy-laden. He resigned from the Swiss bank in 2022 after breaching pandemic-era lockdown rules in Switzerland.
Currently, in addition to serving as an adviser to BPCE, Horta Osório is non-executive vice-chairman of the French bank CCF — an appointment announced at the end of last year that marked his return to the banking sector following his Credit Suisse departure. He also chairs the board of Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial in a non-executive capacity, and holds non-executive directorships at José de Mello Capital and the Champalimaud Foundation, among other positions. He additionally advises Italian investment bank Mediobanca, private equity firm Cerberus and consultancy McKinsey, according to his profile on the Bial website.
In a recent interview with Jornal Económico, Horta Osório offered a markedly positive assessment of BPCE’s acquisition of Novo Banco. ‘As the banker I have always been, the sale of Novo Banco to the French of BPCE was, in my opinion, positive for the bank, for the financial system and its clients, and for the country in general,’ he said. He argued that ‘it is positive not to have too much concentration of banking sector ownership in a single country, whatever that country may be, and in that respect the French have little presence in Portuguese banking.’ Horta Osório further noted that ‘BPCE is the second-largest French bank by equity and the fourth-largest in Europe, with a decentralised culture and a strong focus on client proximity’ — factors he described as ‘very positive’ for Novo Banco and its customers — underlining that the French group has designated Portugal as its second most important market in Europe, a signal, he said, of the country’s growing appeal for foreign direct investment.
On the state of the Portuguese banking system more broadly, Horta Osório was emphatic: ‘The Portuguese banking system is in one of its best moments that I can recall in the past 30 years,’ he said, describing the sector as ‘very strong’, well capitalised, and operating at good levels of service quality and efficiency.
As for Novo Banco specifically, Horta Osório has publicly championed the value of an institution with more than 150 years of history and ‘fantastic employees.’ He had previously argued in favour of the synergies that a potential merger with rival Portuguese lender BCP could have generated — a scenario that never materialised — before endorsing the BPCE sale as ‘a good outcome.’
The invitation to Horta Osório is part of a wider governance restructuring being led by Novo Banco’s new French owners, who intend to replace the model inherited from the Lone Star era with a structure more in keeping with standard Portuguese market practice. BPCE has stated that ‘any future changes to the governance model will be subject to approval by the relevant regulatory authorities,’ and has pledged to release further details ‘over the coming months’ — a process that is set to keep Novo Banco at the centre of attention in the Portuguese financial sector as the institution’s new chapter under French ownership begins to take shape.
Source: Mercado / Original article: https://mercado.co.ao/horta-osorio-convidado-para-vice-presidente-do-novo-banco-pelos-novos-donos-franceses/
