Lloyds Bank sees its profits rise

These are the figures

Lloyds Banking Group has reported a rise in profits in the three months to the end of March.

In the first quarter, pre-tax profits doubled from a year ago to £1.3bn, however last year’s figure included a hefty one-off payment.

Lloyds managed to beat analysts’ expectations as underlying profit was one per cent higher at £2.1bn.

Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio said the firm was able to cope with difficult trading.

Horta-Osorio believes UK interest rates will remain at record lows this year.

Analysts have spoken about how these low interest rates make it harder for banks to increase profits.

The banks rise in profits was helped by the fact it wasn’t dealing with last year’s £800m charge, this came from its move to buy back expensive bonds from investors.

Philip Augar, an author and banking expert, told the BBC: “This time last year they had to disclose a horrible loss due to volatility in their own bond prices.

“There’s none of that this year, [but] they still had to make another provision for about half a billion pounds for sins of the past, PPI [payment protection insurance] and things like that.”