Lloyds Bank to return to profit
Lloyds Bank has today confirmed the company traded profitably in the first three months of 2010 and expects to make a profit for the full year. This is an about turn from only a few months ago when the company was struggling with bad debts, reduced business levels and was under pressure from the government to do more for small businesses and consumers.
While the company has yet to confirm the exact profit for the first three months of 2010 or the forecast for the full year, this comes as a welcome surprise for Gordon Brown as we move towards the next election. Lloyds bank shares are trading slightly higher this morning on the back of this news which had already been leaked to the financial press at the weekend. It seems a mixture of reduced bad debts and a steadier economic outlook has come together to create a more positive trading environment for Lloyds bank and the UK banking sector in general.
However, there are still concerns regarding various economies around the world such as Greece and Ireland and we are nowhere near out of the woods yet. It will be interesting to see how the company performs during the rest of 2010 and what level of profitability it is able to deliver.
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