LONDON, May 31 (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group hassold a portfolio of U.S. residential mortgage backed securitiesfor 3.3 billion pounds ($5 billion), boosting the Britishlender's capital by 1.4 billion pounds.
Lloyds said in a regulatory statement on Friday it willrealise a pre-tax gain of around 540 million pounds from thesale of the assets, which were sold to a number of differentbuyers, as it continues to cut its nore-core assets.
The bank expects to complete the transaction in the firstweek of June.