Investing
Lloyds losses narrow to £570m in 2012
Lloyds Banking Group reported a loss of £570m, down from £3.5bn the previous year, as reports suggest the Government is gearing up to sell its stake in the bank.
The 40% taxpayer owned bank blamed the cost of PPI claims for the fall – it set aside £1.5bn to cover PPI in the fourth quarter alone.
Chief exeutive António Horta-Osorio was also awarded a bonus of £1.5m in deferred shares, to be released it 2018.
The bank’s total bonus pool has been cut 3% to £365m, the bank said.
Last week, Lloyds was fined £4.3m for delaying compensation payments to customers over PPI mis-selling. PPI mis-selling has already cost the bank more than £5bn.
Due to market conditions and its own financial positions, the bank is not returning to the dividend register this year. Lloyds has not paid a dividend since before the 2008 financial crisis.
A report on Sky News suggests Chancellor George Osborne will begin selling the government’s stake in the bank when its shares hit 61p. Yesterday Lloyds shares were trading at 54.67p each.
Horta-Osório said: “While legacy issues, notably Payment Protection Insurance, resulted in the group still reporting a loss at the statutory level, our achievements resulted in a significant improvement in both group underlying and statutory performance, and continued strong returns, above our cost of equity, being delivered in our core business.”
