Tuesday, 30 April 2013 20:18
Posted by Muhammad Iqbal
LONDON: Britain's state-rescued Lloyds bank said on Tuesday that it rebounded into first-quarter net profits on the back of rising income, deep cost-cutting and falling impairment charges.Earnings after taxation hit £1.53 billion ($2.37 billion, 1.81 billion euros) in the three months to the end of March, Lloyds said in a results statement. That contrasted with a slender net loss of £5.0 million in the same part of 2012.Lloyds was boosted by a one-off gain of £394 million from the sale of shares in investment manager St James's Place.Costs fell six percent to £2.408 billion and impairment charges were slashed 40 percent to £1.002 billion.The bank was also lifted because it did not face further provisions to cover product mis-selling in the quarter."We made substantial progress again in the first quarter," said chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio."Underlying and statutory profits improved significantly, and our core loan book returned to growth earlier than ...