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.

This content is for Subscribers only

Subjects

Regions

Context News

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.

Email a friend

Please complete the form below.

Required fields *