Lloyds Banking Group has reported a £3.9bn loss for the first nine months of 2011, mainly due to the cost of settling claims for mis-selling Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).
The pre-tax loss for the period ending 30 September compares with a profit of £2bn a year earlier.
Lloyds said that during the nine months it spent £3.2bn covering PPI refunds. Lloyds said its latest results came against a backdrop of a weakeningUKeconomic environment. It added that the cost of settling PPI claims was completed in the first half of the year.
‘Reducing costs’
The bank’s results come six days after it announced that chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio is to take medical leave. Lloyds expects Mr Horta-Osorio, who only took up the job in March, to return to his position before the end of the year.
Tim Tookey has taken up the chief executive role on an interim basis. Mr Tookey, who is due to leave Lloyds in February, said that Lloyds was continuing to strengthen its balance sheet and reduce costs. The government currently still holds a 41% stake in Lloyds.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said Lloyds was being hit by the slowdown in theUKeconomy, but he questioned whether it and fellow banks were also at fault. The editor said: “Some will say the banks are partly to blame for the sluggishness of the economic recovery, having pumped up the leverage in the boom years and now – in this era of so-called de-risking and de-leveraging – starving businesses with good growth prospects of the credit they so badly need.”
He added that while Lloyds was meeting its lending targets to small and medium-sized firms, the banks appear unwilling to lend to the riskier, yet potentially higher-growth companies.
“Making a refund application against a bank or other large financial institution can be a daunting prospect, which is why it is much better to seek help from an organisation like Brunel Franklin, rather than struggle on and be left to try and work out the details for yourself. We operate a no-win-no-fee service and there is nothing to pay until your case is successfully won and the vendor has paid out,” says Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of Brunel Franklin.
Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51.