Lloyds returns to profit of £2.21bn

Lloyds Banking Group is back in the black for the first time since it was bailed out by the government, boosted by a record results in asset management arm SWIP.

Overall, Lloyds reported a pre-tax profit of £2.21bn, compared with a £6.3bn loss in 2009, while SWIP reported profits before tax of £88m. Funds under management increased to £146.2bn from £141.7bn at the end of 2009. Dean Buckley, managing director of SWIP, says: "SWIP's external gross new business for the year was £3.1bn. A key contributor to this was £1bn new business income in our Wholesale team - another record result for SWIP. "During 2010 we completed the integration of the HBOS heritage assets which entailed the successful transfer of over 300 funds and circa £50bn of asse...