Best foot forward

21 February 2018 By Christopher Thompson Follow @CGAThompson

The UK lender wants to be simple and safe. Boss António Horta-Osório’s new plan needs conduct charges, which grew by a fifth last year, to abate, and the economy to behave. Still, even if revenues stay flat, earnings can roughly double by 2020 if he hits cost targets.

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Lloyds Banking Group on Feb. 21 reported its highest pre-tax profit since 2006 and announced a 1 billion pound share buyback.

The UK-based bank reported profit of 5.3 billion pounds in 2017, a 24 percent increase from a year earlier but below the 5.73 billion pounds expected by analysts in a poll provided by the lender.

Lloyds also announced a new strategy, including plans to invest more than 3 billion pounds over the next three years. The money will be largely spent on digital technology and staff. The bank said it would cut operating costs to less than 8 billion pounds in 2020, and target a return on tangible equity of between 14 percent and 15 percent from 2019.

Lloyds shares rose 1.9 percent to 69.16 pence per share by 0925 GMT.

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