Lloyds Reports Jump in Full-Year Profit, Pumps Up Dividend

By Max Colchester

Lloyds Banking Group PLC said net profit quadrupled last year to 2 billion pounds ($2.50 billion), the result of the bank's successful cost-cutting efforts and no repeat of provisions for customer compensation.

The bank, which is two years into a three-year turnaround plan, said operating costs continued to fall, offsetting a slight fall in revenue to GBP17.3 billion from GBP17.4 billion a year earlier.

Lloyds said it would pay a total ordinary dividend of 2.55 pence a share, up 13% from the year before.

One boost for Lloyds' bottom line: The bank was spared having to put more money aside in the final quarter of the year to compensate customers who bought insurance products they didn't need.

The British bank's improved performance comes as the U.K. government has cut its Lloyds stake to below 5% in the past year, marking another step towards normalization for the retail bank after its near collapse in the financial crisis. This was reinforced in December when Lloyds announced it was buying Bank of America Corp.'s U.K. credit-card business MBNA Ltd., for GBP1.9 billion, the U.K. lender's first major acquisition since its bailout during the crisis.

-Write to Max Colchester at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2017 02:45 ET (07:45 GMT)

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