Lloyds back in the black with £1.6bn profit

The Lloyds Banking Group has returned to profitability after posting a £1.6bn before tax profit in the first half of the year.

Lloyds has rebounded strongly from a £3.96bn loss over the same period last year, as the group was hampered by its former HBOS operations. Total impairments, or bad loans, were significantly lower than originally envisaged, with the losses falling from £13.4bn to £6.55bn. The group says it has made "robust gross lending" to support the UK's economic recovery, extending £14.9bn of gross new mortgages to UK homeowners and £23.7bn of committed gross lending to UK businesses. It says continued integration between the old Lloyds TSB business and HBOS remains on schedule and the group is...