Lloyds Banking Group announced a £2bn share buyback as rising revenue and a writeback of bad debts caused annual profit to surge.
Pretax profit for the year to the end of December was £6.9bn – up from £1.23bn a year earlier as net income increased 9% to £15.76bn. Lloyds released £1.2bn of impaired credit after taking a charge of £4.25bn a year earlier.
The FTSE 100 bank recommended a final dividend of 1.33p a share taking the annual payout to 2p compared with 0.57p a share for 2020. Lloyds said its capital position was strong and that it would buy back up to £2bn of shares.
Charlie Nunn, chief executive, said: “2021 was a year of continued delivery for the group, with successful strategic execution, ongoing investment and continued franchise growth. This resulted in a solid financial performance, with continued business momentum and balance sheet growth.”
