It said the group, which includes HBOS and Bank of Scotland, continued to support the UK economy by providing roughly one in four first-time buyer mortgages and supporting one in five new business start-ups in the nine months to the end of September.
It said the group’s lending to SMEs and mid-market corporate clients increased by more than £1.5bn in the last 12 months.
The group’s underlying profit increased by 6% in the first nine months to £6,355m, largely driven by a 64% drop in impairments.
The bank has also reduced its stake to less than 11%, returning approximately £15.5bn to the UK taxpayer and said it fully supports the share offer.
Ahead of the government share offering of Lloyds shares, António Horta-Osório group chief executive said: “Our strategic progress, coupled with our financial performance has enabled the UK government to make further substantial progress in returning the Group to full private ownership at a profit to the UK taxpayer.”
The bank made a £500m provision for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) in the third quarter, which it had previously disclosed at the half-year.
Mortgage Solutions exclusively revealed earlier this month Esther Dijkstra, head of intermediary protection at Scottish Widows will step into the director of strategic partnerships role at Lloyds from 1 December.
Dijkstra has been instrumental in the launch of ‘Scottish Widows Protect’ into the Intermediary market, which went live this month.
