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| Lloyds Banking Group back in profit in first half | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Lloyds Banking Group has returned to profit, after announcing it made £2.1bn ($3.2bn) in the six months to the end of June. | |
| It compares with a loss of £456m for the same period last year. | It compares with a loss of £456m for the same period last year. |
| The bank said it had made substantial progress on strengthening its balance sheet, although "further work remains to be done". | The bank said it had made substantial progress on strengthening its balance sheet, although "further work remains to be done". |
| The bank, which is 39% owned by the UK government, increased its lending by 1%, or £3bn, over the first half. | The bank, which is 39% owned by the UK government, increased its lending by 1%, or £3bn, over the first half. |
| The bank said it would be talking to regulators in the coming months about resuming paying a dividend on its shares, which would pave the way for the government to sell off its £19bn stake. | |
| Some analysts expect Chancellor George Osborne to make an announcement regarding the sale of the government's stake as early as Thursday. | |
| "The chancellor said that he would be going for an institutional placing with retail to follow earlier in the year, so I would expect the institutional part of that to come out pretty quickly," said Gavin Oldham from stockbrokers Share Plc. | |
| "I would have thought that Lloyds would be quite keen to do that initial placing with the institutions as soon as possible, so we may see an announcement today, perhaps £5bn [worth of shares] or more," he added. | |
| Lloyds' chief executive, Antonio Horta-Osorio, said: "We are now well on track to create a bank with a leading cost position, lower risk, a lower cost of equity, and products and services focused on our customers' needs, to deliver strong, stable and sustainable returns to our shareholders." | |
| Bad debts at Lloyds fell 43% to £1.8bn, but the group had to make a further £450m charge to its accounts to cover the compensation for mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI). | |
| That means that, so far, the bank's total bill for PPI related costs is now £7.3bn. | |
| On the international front, Lloyds' cost-cutting programme continued in the first half of the year. | |
| It has now closed branches and exited from 17 countries, as it looks to focus on its core UK market. | |
| The bank's plan is to be operating in fewer than 10 countries by the end of next year. |