Lloyds Banking Group PLC

UK's FTSE 100 slipped on Thursday, led by oil major Royal Dutch Shell after it missed quarterly profit estimates, but forecast-beating earnings from Lloyds Banking Group and ad firm WPP checked overall declines.

* UK bank profits boosted as pandemic-related bad loan fears ebb (Adds share price, analyst reaction)

Lloyds Banking Group posted a better than expected profit for the third quarter as Britain's economy rebounded from pandemic lockdowns, in Chief Executive Charlie Nunn's first set of earnings at the bellwether bank.

Lloyds Banking Group will close a further 48 branches across England and Wales, the British lender said on Wednesday, as it seeks to further cut costs by trimming its physical network.

London will remain a leading global financial centre despite uncertainty over regulation due to Brexit, Lloyds Bank's annual sentiment survey of financial firms showed on Monday.

* Dividend restored as bad loan fears recede (Adds details, shares, comment)

Lloyds Banking Group swung to a first-half profit on Thursday and announced an interim dividend, boosted by a house buying frenzy and improved economic outlook in Britain.

Lloyds Banking Group has been fined 91 million pounds($125.25 million) for misleading insurance customers over an eight year period, in one of the largest fines levied against a lender for such breaches by regulators.

Lloyds Banking Group has hired David Gledhill, a former executive of Singapore's DBS Bank, as group chief operating officer.

* CEO Horta-Osorio leaving for Credit Suisse (Adds details, CEO comments, share reaction)

London's FTSE 100 climbed on Wednesday, boosted by a series of positive earnings updates from companies, including Lloyds Banking Group and WPP, while investors awaited the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting.

Lloyds Banking Group reported better than expected profits for the first three months of the year, in outgoing Chief Executive António Horta-Osório's last set of results at Britain's biggest domestic bank.

* Investors await Lloyds CEO as new Credit Suisse chairman (Adds further comment)

Thomas Gottstein may have acted decisively enough this week to stay as Credit Suisse chief executive, but investors are likely to require more radical action after the bank's $4.7 billion loss from the Archegos hedge fund scandal.

Britain's big four banks amassed more than 200 billion pounds ($277.52 billion) of new deposits last year as customers reined in spending through pandemic lockdowns, far outstripping extra lending to struggling businesses and households.

Lloyds Banking Group's outgoing Chief Executive António Horta-Osório set out fresh targets to expand the lender's insurance and wealth business and further cut costs, as the bank resumed a dividend despite a sharp fall in profits for 2020.

Lloyds Banking Group reported a sharp fall in profits for 2020 but resumed paying a dividend, as outgoing CEO António Horta-Osório set out fresh targets to expand the bank's insurance and wealth business and further cut costs.

The rate of fraud for state-backed loans to small companies in the COVID-19 pandemic is about five times normal levels, a senior Lloyds bank executive said on Monday.

Black employees at Lloyds are paid nearly a fifth less on average than their colleagues, according to an ethnicity pay gap report published by the bank on Friday.