Santander hits back at Andrea Orcel over would-be CEO’s €100m lawsuit
Santander has responded to a €100m (£90m) lawsuit being brought by its would-be chief executive, Andrea Orcel, after the bank withdrew its job offer in early 2019.
The Spanish bank said the offer letter it sent to Orcel in September 2018 did not constitute a contract under local law.
Read more: Orcel ‘offered €52m’ by Santander as part of botched CEO plan
“Orcel was appointed CEO on September 25th, a process that was expedited by both himself and UBS,” Santander said today.
“But neither the appointment nor the contract between the bank and Mr. Orcel were finalised as they were dependent on the specifics of the buyout compensation.”
That compensation ran into trouble, Santander said, while the appointment never received the approval of Banco Santander’s shareholders, board of directors or the European Central Bank.
Orcel’s lawyers claim Santander breached its contract by cancelling the formal offer in January over his pay demands.
Santander had agreed to pay up to 35m of bonuses owed to Orcel from UBS, the bank said, but claimed Orcel failed to make “his best efforts” to reduce the sum Santander would pay.
The banking giant also accused Orcel of recording private conversations without anyone’s knowledge or consent, a discovery the bank said it made through the banker’s lawsuit.
“This is a practice of dubious ethical and moral behavior for someone who was potentially to become Banco Santander’s CEO,” Santander said.
Orcel has reportedly demanded he is paid €100m in damages or that the bank immediately appoints him as its CEO.
The former UBS banker also allegedly refused to count a €13.7m deferred bonus for 2018 towards reducing the cost Santander would have had to pay.
Read more: Santander kills Orcel CEO offer over compensation
A letter Orcel reportedly asked the bank to help write to UBS with his signature, asking for UBS to stump 50 per cent of his compensation, may not ever have been sent, Santander added.
“There is no evidence that he ever sent that letter, a draft of which was provided to him by the bank,” Santander said.