Horta-Osório joined the bank at the beginning of the year after being poached from Santander but has been ordered by his doctors to take a break from his post on grounds of stress, reported the Financial Times.
The 41% government-owned Lloyds said on Wednesday that he was expected to return “before the end of the year”.
The bank’s board is to meet later today to agree on interim arrangements. They are expected to ask Tim Tookey, who is due to leave the bank in February 2012, to take the role of acting chief executive partly in the absence of any credible alternative.
Horta-Osório conducted a clear-out of senior executives shortly after his arrival and his one high-profile external hire, Nathan Bostock from Royal Bank of Scotland, is yet to arrive.
The hiring of Horta-Osório was seen to give a real boost to the government’s chances of being able to rebuild the troubled bank and shed the taxpayer-owned shareholding at a profit.
Since then the value of Lloyds stock has plummeted like that of most other banks.
Lloyds had substantial exposure to the troubled Irish economy but aggressively wound down its exposure and unlike many eurozone rivals, it is now strongly capitalised.
Lloyds Banking Group declined to comment to the FT.
