Subscribe to the BlogLloyds Banking Group has announced it lost £24bn on bad loans in 2009, forcing the bank heavily into the red.
The bank posted an operating loss of £6.3bn - slightly less than analysts had expected and less than the £6.7bn loss the group made in 2008. On a pre-tax profit basis, the group made a profit of £1bn. The bank blamed the massive losses on commercial property loans made by Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), which it took over at the start of last year. It said these "impairments" were 21% lower in the second half of 2009, and would continue to see a similar rate of improvement throughout this year. Lloyds shares had lost more than 5% by mid-afternoon trading.