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LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group
reported better than expected profits for the first three months
of the year, in outgoing Chief Executive António Horta-Osório's
last set of results at Britain's biggest domestic bank.
Lloyds reported 1.9 billion pounds ($2.64 billion) pre-tax
profit for the first quarter on Wednesday, compared to an
average of analyst forecasts of 1.1 billion pounds. The bank had
posted a narrow 74 million pound quarterly profit the prior
year.
The bank's profits were boosted by the release of a 459
million pound chunk of its provisions for expected bad loans due
to the pandemic, with a net improvement of 323 million pounds,
compared to a forecast of 357 million pounds of additional
impairments.
Horta-Osório is leaving Lloyds after a decade in the role to
become Chairman of crisis-hit Swiss bank Credit Suisse,
with the appointment expected to be confirmed at an investor
meeting on Friday. HSBC executive Charlie Nunn is set to join
Lloyds as CEO in August.
HSBC kicked off British bank quarterly earnings on
Tuesday by also posting better than forecast profits after a
similar release of bad loan provisions.
Like HSBC, Lloyds said the economic outlook in Britain now
looked better than it had initially feared, leading to the
provisions release and improved guidance for the year.
Horta-Osório is preparing to chair the board at Credit
Suisse, widely seen as one of the toughest jobs in banking.
The Swiss lender is reeling from multi-billion dollar losses
from the collapse of family office Archegos, the fallout from
insolvent British finance company Greensill and a spying scandal
last year that ousted its former CEO Tidjane Thiam.
($1 = 0.7205 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers and Lawrence White, Editing by Anna
Irrera)